The Black Veil Chronicles
by raf9900
Summary: A large-scale "behind-the-scenes" EU project revealing the untold story lived by the Vongola women and their surprinsingly important role in the family's success. Follows closely the anime/manga's timeline and overall mood. Rated T because it's still a shounen.
1. Pilot chapter

\- The Black Veil Chronicles -

Disclaimer: Some of the main characters of this fan fiction appear often on the main canon storyline, standing there to do absolutely nothing while events that have little to no impact to this story in particular unfold. To avoid having useless filler exposition, I am skipping most of these scenes and resuming any important details on the next one. If you require further refreshment/information, please check the wiki or watch the anime. Thank you for your comprehension.

Chapter 1: What!? I'm the 9th generation Black Veil Boss!?

-Sicily, Italy -

Sicily at noon was truly a sight to see if you were a believer of the more romanticized version of the italian Mafia: the centuries-old buildings and floors reflected the sunlight into a dark and dangerous tone of orange and daunting faces sat in every corner, looking out for any disturbance in the order. Two figures jumped out of vision, walking casually through the streets and attracting the attention and respect of everyone they passed by. The first one was tall, blonde mean with a suit that meant business; the other one was none other than a blue-haired baby wearing a grey pacifier around the neck.

"I believe you've heard the news already." The man asked.

"Of course." The baby had a feminine voice too mature for its age. "I just said goodbye to Reborn."

"Does he have any idea? About your mission?"

"No, not at all." The baby complemented the answer with a light chuckle. "He thinks I'm staying here."

"Not even the world's greatest hitman could figure our secret." He thought out loud, as if the sound of it amused him. "Now all you have to do is figure out your approach."

"Don't even remind me about that... This is going to be a pain. Just do me a favor and get the guys to help me as soon as you can."

"Will do, Lal." The man agreed. He took a small wallet-like container from his suit and gave it to the baby. "Here's everything you need. Good luck."

\- Namimori, Japan -

A young girl walked briskly through the Namimori streets on her way back home. She was short and thin, had short light brown hair and large, innoccent eyes of the same color. She also wore the white shirt, blue skirt and black stockings from the Namimori Middle school uniform. Her brother, Ryohei Sasagawa, wouldn't return from his boxing training for quite a few hours that day, leaving her with more than enough spare time to think on that day's strange events. From Sawada "Good for nothing" Tsunayoshi's sudden and embarassing declaration to his later impressive fight, the boy's image on her mind had changed drastically for good. Her mind and heart now stood at an impasse; as odd and inapropriate as his request to go out was, it was still a request and had to be evaluated as such. The problem laid in that the young girl was still far from being sure about her feelings for him and feared a bad, rushed decision more than anything. _But how am I supposed to tell him to wait?,_ she thought to herself. _That'd be sellfish, to say the least..._

The Sasagawa's home was a large, but simple middle-class two store house with tranquil white walls and a very well kept bush garden. Just behind it laid the Namimori natural park, a preservation area sadly underused by the population due to its lack of instalations. That mattered little for Kyoko, however, who knew the place as well as her own bedroom from adventures in her younger years. _Now that I think about it, this might be a good place to meditate about today._ After a quick visit home to greet father and mother and leave her backpack behind, the middleschooler headed straight for the back of the house and nimbly jumped over the wall into the park.

It was not like Namimori natural park was always abandoned, though. It had always housed a mostly impressive collection of cherry trees, whose blossoming over its crystal clear lake brought tourists from all over japan. Unfortunately, nowadays it seemed like you could find cherry tree-themed parks everywhere and people quickly lost interest over larger and better versions of the same thing. After the largest tree of the lake had a termite problem and was forced to be cut down to its stump, people simply stopped caring about it. Well, most of them, at least. Kyoko just happened to enjoy sitting on that very stump, enjoying the quiet noise of the birds and frogs, surrounded by the other still unblossomed flora and trying to spot where the forest ended and its reflex on the water began.

"It's a nice place you've found here." A feminine voice called out from between the trees, breaking the silence. "Very peaceful, very secluded. Should work."

"Um, hello?" Kyoko hesitantly greeted, looking around in search of the voice's source. "Do I know you?" The speaker made its presence behind herself, and she turned around to see who it was. "You're a... Baby?" The middleschooler asked, eyes and mouth wide open in shock.

The disturber of peace wasn't tall enough to reach half a meter, and half of her height seemed to be due to her immense head. The baby wore a crimson overcoat and grey googles with red sights, had greenish blue hair, brown eyes and a red mark over the right cheek. Perhaps her most interesting atribute, though, was the mysterious grey pacifier around her neck. Despite having clearly the body of a baby, she seemed more than able to think, move and communicate as well as any adult, possibly even better.

"Hey! Watch how you talk to me, kid." _Am I really being called a kid by a baby?_ "I'm your teacher now, after all."

"Kid? Teacher?" Kyoko repeated, still having trouble swallowing so much new information. "This has got to be some kind of weird dream..." A swift chop hit her in the nape, proving the last part wrong. "Ouch!"

"What?" The baby seemed surprised by the negative reaction. "There's your proof that you're not in a dream. The name's Lal Mirch, by the way."

"Don't get me wrong, Ms. Mirch," The middleschooler tried to explain, caressing the hurt region. "But I'm not really looking for a teacher of any kind. What did you expect to teach me, anyway? Maths?"

"Maths are nothing but an excuse weak people make up to feel important." Lal Mirch observed. "I'm here to teach you how to become the most powerful woman in the Mafia, and I don't remember mentioning you had a choice."

"A _what_ , you said!?" Kyoko gasped. "No, no way. I am positive you got me mixed up with someone else."

"Well then, let's check, shall we?" The angry teacher asked.

"Sure, go ahead."

"Sasagawa Kyoko?"

"That's my name..."

"Studies in Namimori middle school?"

"Yes..."

"Has feelings for Sawada Tsunayoshi?"

"I... Uh... - Kyoko blushed lightly as she remembered all the confused thoughts in her head.

"Trick question, I know." Lal Mirch agreed. "Just tell me if you care about him, then."

"Well, that I do." The middleschooler agreed. "But wait, what does Tsuna-kun has to do with this?"

"Ah, yes, I was about to get there." The teacher explained. "I'm going to take a wild guess here and say you've seen Tsuna with a baby about my height in a black suit."

"Actually, I did! He was very cute."

"Don't be fooled by that silly smile." Lal warned. "He's actually here to train your friend as well. He's been chosen to carry the very heavy burden of becoming the next Mafia Boss of a massive family. Ensuring you two go along well is key."

"I still don't get any of this." Kyoko complained. "Tsuna is nothing like a Mafia boss, and I look even less the part! You two must be insane if you think that we'll just go along with this."

"It's a lot of information for one day, I know." The teacher said, as if her student's words didn't really matter at that point. The baby turned her back and started heading back to the woods. "Don't worry, I'll give you some time before we start training." She stoped, however, to add in a serious tone: "One more thing, though. Tsuna, Reborn and their friends _cannot_ know that we had this conversation. Can you do that?"

"I guess I can..." The student agreed. "But why?"

"Because a shadow is never truly seen, it can move freely and strike deadly." Lal explained. "That is the way of the Black Veil."

With those last words, the baby left. Kyoko was once again alone, now more restless than ever. While that little exchange helped explain some of Tsuna's unusual behavior earlier that day, it raised more questions than she could have possibly have asked in such little time. There was a clear choice there: either she could keep repeating those absurd questions in her head or calm down, organize the little information that was availible and draw a plan for reacting to it. And while the young middleschooler didn't seem like much for an outsider, the fact that she chose the latter was a hint of her true self.

 _Ok, so they want me in Tsuna in a Mafia family for wathever reason. Those 2 babies somehow seem to work for it and are adamant of making sure we'll do that. If Tsuna-kun has any good sense at all, he's probably as shocked as I am and doesn't want it either. I guess my best shot right now is to show them that we're really not Mafia material. As soon as they try to train us, all we have to do is fail horribly at it..._ Come to think of it, as much as she'd hate to admit Good-for-Nothing Tsuna probably had a headstart on her for that.

\- On the next day -

Ever since that encounter on the park, Kyoko Sasagawa had had no contact with anything unusual, which somehow gave her the hopes of never finding the strange babies again. It was a very nice day, the sun shone happily but the temperature was forgiving and every student was heading towards the Namimori Middle school to get ready for class. Expectations for the day seemed high for everyone, and the reason for that she overheard on the conversation between 2 students:

"Have you heard about the transfer student?"

"Yes! They say it's from an italian school! How cool is that?"

For Kyoko, that was the first clue that the baby wasn't lying about the whole thing. _Just after we get called to join the Mafia, someone comes from Italy... This can't be a coincidence._ With that in mind, she entered the locker room and saw Tsuna, of all people. He was grabbing his school supplies and hadn't noticed her yet. _He looks a little stressed out, really... But how exactly am I going to get along with him if I can't talk about what's happening?_ Hard pressed to find something to talk about, the middleschooler had no choice but to go off about the only other thing on her head right now:

"Hello, Tsuna-kun!" She greeted with a candid smile.

"Oh H-Hello, Kyoko chan!" Tsuna was clearly still embarassed by his deeds on the day before and hoped she didn't bring them up.

"Did you know there is going to be a student transferred to our class today?" Kyoko asked.

"Ah, yes." He awnsered, calming down a bit. "It was on the agenda Reborn made out for me." _So he's already mentioning Reborn like this... Maybe he took the news better than me?"_

"What do you think this person is going to look like?" She insisted. "Do you think it is going to be a boy? Or a girl?"

"Who knows..."

The class buzzer interrupted the two's conversation and they went for class.

\- A few hours later -

 _That Gokudera guy is up to no good._

That was the only thought going through Kyoko's head the whole morning, even when she did her best to smile and look clueless to the abuse Tsuna had to put up from him. The lunch break had just begun and everyone headed to grab some seats for the great volleyball tournament match. _I gotta get there and root for Tsuna... And try to stop that new guy from trying to ruin it._ She was on the way there with Hana Kurokawa, a close frend of hers, when Lal Mirch showed up. The baby was just by a corner in the corridor and gave her a short, irritated nod towards the other the main exit before disappearing towards that way.

"You go on ahead." Kyoko suggested. "I gotta do a little something first."

"Oh, sure." Hana agreed. "Take care." Sasagawa followed her self-entitled instructor through the empty halls of the middle school all the way into the main outside court. Since it was on the other side of the main court, no student could be seen in vicinities. She asked to the baby:

"Are we going to do something about the Gokudera guy? He looks dangerous."

"Don't worry, he's small fish." Lal commented, much to her surprise. "Tsuna can handle that kind of thing. We've got a much, much bigger problem to solve right now." She raised her arm and pointed it to Namimori's roof. "Right there."

"Oh, no!" Kyoko gasped. "It can't be..."

There was actually another Namimori middleschool student nearby. A young girl could be seen atop the middle section of the school, on the ledge just above the giant clock. She seemed to belong to a class a year before Sasagawa and Tsuna and was very thin and pale, with long, purple hair covering one of her large, also purple eyes with a bang. What made her gasp, however, was the girl's body language. _She's going to jump!_

"Well, there she is." Lal Mirch commented on a sad tone. Kyoko felt a very deep chill on her spine as she heard the sound of a gun lock. "Time to see what you're really made of, Sasagawa Kyoko."

The Black Veil leader in training glanced back at the gun one moment too late, and the Baby fired a shot directly at her forehead. The bullet turned into energy and fazed into her head, knocking her out before any reaction could be had. Instead of feeling pain, despair or hate, however, Kyoko felt calmer than she ever had been. _Is this what death looks like?Well, I guess I don't have that many regrets..._ A sudden wave of determination interrupted that dangerous thought. _Except for that girl on the rooftop. She must have been gone through something terrible and just needed a friend... I wish I could've saved her._

As if the bullet had heard the plead, it took control of the Black Veil's leader in training and filled her body with boundless energy and the determination to fullfill her last wish. The dying will took the form of a flame in her forehead, white as snow, and tore off her clothing. But Kyoko didn't seem to mind being in her underwear at the moment: her eyes were focused on the little suicidal student and that only. She sprinted at the school's walls at maximum speed, leaped into the first floor and gripped tighly into the window. She kept on going from there, climbining quickly into the next floor and then into the ceiling.

"I'm gonna save her!" The dying will flame bearer shouted.

The girl with the purple hair finally noticed someone was coming for her and readied herself for the jump. Kyoko was having none of that, however, and doubled her speed heading towards the middle section. Defying gravity completely, she hit the upright wall and kept running vertically, reaching the highest point of Namimori Middleschool in less then a second. The young Black Veil leader caught eye of the suiciding student just as she fell from the top and ran after her. Sasagawa stopped as close from the ledge as possible and her hand reached out into the gap below.

"Gotcha!" She screamed. Below that, a very confused purple-haired girl took a moment to notice she hadn't died, being held on by her foot, looked back up and ask:

"But... Why?" Tears started showing up on her eyes. "Why did you save me!? You don't even know me!"

With the last moments of her dying will flame, Kyoko pulled out the rescued student back into the rooftop. The purple-haired girl just sat there, begging for an awnser with those big, wet purple eyes. _So this is the face of someone who has nothing to live for._ Seeing that despair awoke seomething inside Lal Mirch's student, a long lost determination that seemed to run vividly through the Sasagawa's blood. Going on pure instinct, she pulled in the scared student and gave her a tight, warm hug.

"I don't care how hard it is for you to go on living right now." Kyoko whispered. "We're gonna get through this, together. That's a promise."

"A promise?" She asked back. "B-But I don't deserve it..."

"Don't be silly." Kyoko asked, separating the two apart. Not that her Dying Will flames had run out, she finally noticed she was sitting on top of the school and half naked. "Waah! Where are my clothes?"

"That's just a side effect of the dying will bullet." Lal Mirch explained, throwing at her student a new pair of clothes to wear. "Not bad, kid. Most people think of something much more sellfish when they are about to die."

"This is supposed to be the 'training' you mentioned earlier?" Kyoko asked, dressing herself up again. "You must be insane."

"Actually, I might be the sanest person you'll ever know." The baby replied before turning her attention to the saved student: "Hey, you. Do you want to get back at my student for saving your life?" The purple-haired girl hesitated a moment before answering:

"Y-Yes! I'll do anything..."

"Great." Lal answered. "You'll join her family, then. Welcome to the Black Veil." The newest member of the Black Veil turned her head to the side, confused with the baby's words.

"Don't listen to her." Kyoko suggested, glancing angrily at her teacher before returning her attention to the girl she saved: "Let's talk a bit. Are you from this school? I don't think I've ever seen you around here..."

"Yes, I am." She replied. "I-I'm too scared to go to class, and my parents don't care if I go. I... I don't think anyone has ever been this nice to me before." Her huge eyes were melting Kyoko's heart like butter on a hot day.

"It's alright, but you shouldn't miss school anymore." Kyoko insisted. "And what's you name, my new friend?"

"F-friend? Already?" The word seemed most dear to the purple-haired girl. "My name... My name is Nagi."

\- Chapter end -


	2. Chapter 2

\- The Black Veil Chronicles -

\- Daily Life Arc -

Chapter 2: The Family Grows!

"Are you done yet?" Lal Mirch asked.

"You're a physcho!" Her student shouted back.

Kyoko Sasagawa was back in the park where all that insanity had begun, along with Lal Mirch and her newly made friend Nagi. The latter sat on the old cherry tree stump, watching nervously the so-called 'training' take part, which was already well on its fourth hour. The Baby was perked atop the tallest remaining tree, a 60 feet tall old Juniper, holding a tiny pistol on one hand and a rope knot on the other. Lastly, her student dangled upside down a feet under that, tightly wrapped by the same rope and already on her underwear. After having tried to escape unsucessfully for a full minute, she had already given up on beating the rope's tight grip.

"C'mon!" Lal insisted. "Is that _all_ you got? Pathetic."

With those words being said, the instructor released the rope and fired a Last Will bullet into the falling girl's forehead. As the shot hit Kyoko, her mind went through the entire day of yesterday once again, from Gokudera's first appearance, herself saving Nagi, getting her to join that crazy organization and then heading straight to the game and rooting for Tsuna. _This whole 'pretend it never happened' thing is going to drive me mad eventually._ At the same time Tsuna-kun would probably never have the chance to tell her about his own deeds while in the dying will mode, since he probably thought that it was his duty to protect her from all that. She had to stop thinking on the matter for a moment, however, as the ground was approaching quickly. _Oh, yeah, right. I have to survive right now._

Just a few feet below that, Nagi could only watch the training and hope for the best, as Lal had instructed her not to interfere on it by any means. On the last day, she didn't feel confortable in going into the crowded mess that was the inside court to watch the Volleyball game, so she waited outside until after the match. Then, Kyoko and the little baby had the kindness of walking her back home, attempting some small talk and filling her in on whatever little information the baby had already disclosed on the Black Veil. It was more than enough already, however, and after experiencing the Mafia's heroism first-hand, the purple-haired girl wanted nothing more than to give them her best. She was still trying to understand why all that was happening to her of all people when a stranger's voice brought her back to earth:

"Wow! This new shortcut will let Haru get to the baby much earlier!"

"Oh, no..." Nagi got up and tried to reach the unsuspecting passerby before she ran into their training, but it was already too late.

Back on the Juniper, the Black Veil leader in training activated her Dying Will flame and quickly searched around for an escape of the situation, finding a sufficiently thick branch just beside her. She grabbed it and used her feet to as a support to spin around it, landing nimbly on top. Another bullet came in her direction shortly after, this time a real one. Kyoko was quick to react and leaped into a near, lower branch to avoid it in the nick of time. Dancing between life and death, she slowly descended the tree while avoiding the onslaught of bullets. It seemed like she would succeed when the rope showed up again, reaching her and wrapping around her body once again, just half a foot from the ground. Lal Mirch landed just behind her, commenting on disappointed tone:

"Not even the Dying Will flame will save you if you're this bad, kid." A quick pull of the rope released her, as if the thing was mind-controlled.

"Hahi!?" The passerby gasped. She seemed to be about Sasagawa's age, had brown hair partially tied in a pony tail and wore Midori middle school's uniform, the undeniable sign of an early genius student. "Haru-chan can't believe what she just saw!"

"This is bad..." Kyoko commented. Shortly after, came the realization that she was still in her underwear, so she hid under the Juniper to try to keep herself some decency.

"Oh, hello there." It almost seemed like Lal Mirch was expecting her. "You're that girl that keeps following Reborn, aren't you?"

"Huh?" The stranger replied, surprised by the prediction. "The little baby? Yes, I do... It's just that he's so cute! I wanna be friends with him!"

"Well, that's convenient." The baby commented. As much as Kyoko tried to stare her to death from behind the tree, it seemed to have little effect. "So, you wanna help that baby out in a little project he's doing?"

"He's doing a project!?" The passerby exclaimed with a shine on her eyes. "Haru will help him, then! That's a promise!"

"Excellent, then." Lal confirmed. "Welcome to the Black Veil."

"Black Veil?" The newest member of the Black Veil asked. "That name sounds familiar... Is that some kind of Reborn fan club?"

"Actually, no..." Kyoko tried to say, but it was pretty much like talking to a wall at the moment:

"Excellent! My name is Miura Haru-chan, at your service!"

"I'm Sasagawa Kyoko. Sorry we have to meet like this."

"I, uh... I-I'm Nagi."

"And I'm Lal Mirch, the instructor of the Black Veil. You should go on to meet reborn now, or you'll be late."

"Hahi!" Haru agred, sprinting out from the forest. "Thanks! We'll catch on later!"

"Oh, and one more thing." Lal Mirch warned. Haru stoped immedeately to listen, still pumped to greet Reborn. "Neither Reborn nor his friends should know about this. If they ask, we don't even know each other. Got it?"

"Oh, ok. I guess it is more fun this way." The Midori student concluded just before disappearing in the forest. "See ya!"

"You know, some day you'll have to explain to us what's up with all this secrecy." Kyoko complained, leaving her hideout behind the tree. Nagi gave her clothes back and she put them back on. "Wouldn't we be stronger together?"

"Stronger? Maybe." Lal replied. "But also much more vulnerable. Our family, the Vongola, has an extensive list of enenmies. Not only that, but there are people inside our own family who don't approve Sawada's title of 10th Vongola Boss, just like Gokudera used to. Most of them aren't as brave as him, though, and they often try less than honourable tactics to achieve their goals. That's the reason why the Black Veil was created. By tradition, it has always been composed of the women closest to the current leader, to raise the least suspicion possible. Being the closest do Tsuna, you have been chosen by the higher-ups as the 9th leader of the organization, and it is your duty to gather a family capable of protecting the weak spots of the Vongola and our deepest secrets. It's as simple as that."

"Hang on a second..." Kyoko thought out loud. "9th? Wasn't I supposed to be the 10th?"

"Things got weird on the 8th generation..." Lal Mirch rolled her eyes as she remembered those times. "But that doesn't matter for you. You should get ready for school right now, kid, or you'll be late."

"Whaaat?" Kyoko pleaded. "But I'm completely burnt out! I don't want to go today..." The awnser was, as expected, a swift chop in the nape.

"I didn't ask if you wanted to go or not." The baby insisted. "You have a perfect presence in school and I refuse to let your training get in the way." Her student sighed, exhausted, but ended up nodding in agreement.

"Um..." Nagi called for the two's attention. "Should I come too?"

"Oh, kido... I haven't even started with you yet." A rather terrifying grin showed up on Lal Mirch's mouth for an instant before she returned to her usual serious self. "There's no point anymore in you coming too school at this point, so I'll have to homeschool you. _After_ you finish your training."

"Good luck, Nagi." Kyoko encouraged her. "I know you can do it!"

"T-Thanks." With those words, the 9th Black Veil leader left the park as well. Lal Mirch kept staring out at the point where she left for a few more seconds, confirming that she was really gone.

"Let's follow her." Lal declared.

"Why?"

"Because the very first threat to the 10th has just reached Namimori. It is time to mobilize the Black Veil."

\- A few minutes later. -

"Is anything going on with you, Kyoko? You seem a little distant lately."

The questioner was Hana Kurokawa, a close friend of Kyoko. She was slightly higher than Kyoko and had a serene, mature face that went well with her long, wavy brown hair. She also wore the Namimori middleschool uniform and a small necklace. The two had just met Yamamoto, Tsuna and Gokudera, and the last two ran off to go after a little kid in a cow costume. _It looks like Lal isn't the only one getting a family for her student..._ After the Disciplinary comitee leader Hibari showed up, everyone exited the corridor and entered the classroom out of fear of being bitten to death. The two were heading to their seats when a grim presence made itself known to them.

"Did you feel that?" Kyoko asked Hana out of instinct.

"Actually, yes I did." She awnsered, much for her surprise, while holding her collar nervously. "It feels like something's tigthening around my neck."

"Uh..." Sasagawa wasn't sure how to react at the time, so she just lit up a smile and replied. "Must have been the wind. I'll go to the bathroom real quick, hang on." _Whatever that was, it can't be good. I gotta catch up on that,_ she thought to herself while heading for the door.

"We just went there, like, 5 minutes ago." Hana complained, holding her friend's hand to stop her from going away. "Are you going to tell me what's going on or what?"

"Hello there."

The source of the voice was speaking directly to the two from the corridor, since they were the nearest ones to the door. She seemed a bit older than the two, with a tall, athletic body, long straight salmon hair and a calm, but dangerous expression. She wore a short green tank top with the word 'Barth' written on it, tight black pants and several bracelets over her right arm, which also had a scorpion tatoo near the shoulder. _There's no doubt,_ Kyoko concluded. _That feeling from before... It came from this woman._ Despite all, the Black Veil leader managed to keep her calm and reply:

"Hello. Who are you?"

"I'm Bianchi, nice to meet you. Have any of you seen the Vongola Decimo around here, by any chance?"

"You mean No-good Tsuna?" Hana asked. "He went to the courtyard to chase after a kid."

"Hana..." Kyoko reprimanded.

"Oh, thanks." Bianchi replied, already heading for the stairs. "Excuse me a second while I go kill him." The two students were paralyzed for a moment while that information sank in. _I must have heard it wrong,_ Kurokawa thought to herself. She quickly realized that wasn't the case by the look in her friend's face.

"C'mon, Hana." Kyoko said in an almost robotic manner while grabbing her friend's wrist. "I guess I'll explain it all to you when it's over." She then looked Hana deep in the eye and added: "Right now, we have to save Tsuna-kun." The two students chased after Bianchi down the stairs and into the ground floor. "Hey you, wait right there!"

"Something else you have yo say, girl?" Bianchi asked.

"I won't let you hurt Tsuna." Kyoko boasted with a serious expression. _This is dead serious_ , Hana thought to herself. _But what does Kyoko plans to do against this woman? I don't think I'd seen her being violent to anything..._

"You two make a nice couple." The woman's remark made the Black Veil leader blush slightly, but she didn't show any signs of yielding. "But little Tsuna is in the way of my love. And I will kill anything that stands on my way to get him back." _Her love?_ Hana asked herself. _Who could that be? The white-haired guy from Italy, maybe?_

"Look, I'm sure there's another way." Kyoko reasoned. "What can I do to stop you from killing him?"

"Do you really want to stand up for your love?" Biachi asked. Being rather pressured with time, the Black Veil leader decided to just roll with that and nod in agreement. "Alright then. Let's have a fight, you and me. If you win, I won't bother Tsuna ever again. But if _I_ win..." Bianchi let out a terrifying grin to enforce the message. "You will be the one delievering the Decimo's death."

"Kyoko, don't do it!" Hana ordered. "This woman is cleary mental. We need to call the disciplinary comitee, or even the police! We can't do anything right now." Kyoko gulped and her hand was shaking, but eventually she answered:

"I... I accept your conditions. Let's do this on the rooftop."

"Kyoko, what are you doing?" Her friend tried her best to hold her, but she got rid of her grab and began silently climbing the stairs. "Are you crazy? She could have a gun, for all the we know!"

"It's alright, Hana." Kyoko's face was pale and a sweat was over her brow, but her eyes were steady and smile showed some degree of confidence. "I got this."

"There they are."

Not far from there, Lal Mirch and Nagi hid in a nearby tree, watching over the rooftop. As they expected, Kyoko and Bianchi showed up on the rooftop and walked a few steps from each other, preparing themselves for the fight over Tsuna's life. Shortly after, Hana Kurokawa showed up on the top of the stairs and hid behind cover, eager to see the result of all that. The baby had the gun and the Dying will bullet on the ready, but she didn't want to use it right off the bat; first, her student would need to show just what she was made of. The other Black Veil member with her didn't approve of it, but had little power to stop it.

"Should I begin?" Bianchi asked, leaning to the side with a hand over her waist. Her expression still remained calm, but it was very clear that she was more than ready to kill if it were necessary.

"Go ahead." Unsure of what else to do, Kyoko tried to imitate her older brother's pose and rose her first upwards, trying to look as menacing as possible. She asked herself: _What kind of weapon is she using? A gun?A sword?_

 _...A cake?_

Bianchi was now holding in her hand a large layer cake on her hand, which seemed delicious but had an eerie feeling around it. Not long after she whipped the dessert out a few birds fell out from the sky, confirming that it was, indeed, dangerous. The woman was clrearly tired of waiting and hurled the sweet weapon into her oponent. Kyoko managed to dodge it by crounching, feeling the projectile whiffing her hair and then hearing it splatter into the wall behind her. A dumpling shower was thrown at her right after, and she was forced to run and hide behind one of the two structures of the rooftop. _I have to think of some way to beat her... But how?_ Even with the occasional pie exploding just a few inches from her, tt didn't take long until the perfect idea showed up.

"Are you going to run now?" Bianchi asked, circling the structure her oponent hid after from the right; she found her just in front of the rooftop's glass protection on the other side, near the edge of the building.

"I'm not running." Kyoko denied. "I'm just making you approach me."

With those words, the Black Veil leader jumped over the glass protection, avoiding by mere moments an onslaugh of fish lamen and disappearing from view. Taking for granted that the girl would now be in a very vulnerable situation, Bianchi walked a few meters to the right and then approached the ledge, where she could finish the fight from a safe distance. She reached the glass protection and leaned over, a platter of pasta on the ready, but found no trace of her opponent. _Where could she have gone?_ Unfortunately for her, she noticed someone was going for her right arm a moment too late.

"Gotcha."

Much to Kyoko's joy, her insane 'mobility' training with Lal Mirch already gave some results; she managed not only to hold herself at the ledge but also to quickly manuever on it, circling behind Bianchi to surprise her. Being leaned on already, it didn't require much strenght to pull her out of the building. _C'mon... This has to work!_ The woman was pulled sucessfully over the ledge, but had other plans over falling; with quick reflexes, she reached out and grabbed the student's feet in the nick of time. The weight of them both was quickly proving to be too much for her fingers and her oponent still had the deadly plate on hand. _I've failed... Sorry, Hana. I guess I lied to you, after all._

"Way to go, kid."

Satisfyed with her student's job, Lal Mirch aimed at Kyoko and fired a Dying Will bullet, hitting her just before her grip slipped. The dying will effect took a full second to take effect, during which the two fighters lost their grip and fell towards the ruthless concrete. _What I regret the most today... Is trying to harm the woman. I should have found a better way..._ The Black Veil leader's thoughts powered up the bullet, filling her body with energy and ripping off her clothes once again. Her training on the Juniper tree returned and set foot on the school's walls, picking up an impulse downward to grab Bianchi mid-fall. She then spinned around herself to grab the window's ledge just beside her and, much like she did on the first time, climbed back up into the rooftop with her oponent on the back. Both of them fell bluntly on the concrete, but still on one piece. With the objective complete, the white flame quickly faded out.

"Oh, darn..." Lal Mirch thought out loud. "Can't she be a _little_ more selfish?"

Bianchi nimbly got up from being thrown, not having understood very well what happened. _She flipped me over... And then saved me?_ She whipped out a turkey leg and approached her opponent, who was still trying to recover herself from the fall. _You had guts, I'll give you that... But that alone isn't enough to surpass my love._ The woman was about to hurl her final attack when Lal Mirch finally made her appearance, appearing between the two. She shouted:

"Enough! Kyoko yields." Hana took the oportunity to reach her friend and help her back up.

"But... I... Failed?" Kyoko asked.

"You fared decently, kid." Lal informed her. "But Bianchi is a trained assassin. There was no way you could have won this."

"But what about Tsuna-kun?" Sasagawa insisted.

"We'll just have to leave this challenge to him." The Baby replied. "You two are late to class; go, I'll sort this out with her." Kyoko was still hesitant to leave everything like that, but this time it was Hana who took her by the arm and dragged her to the stairs, saying:

"C'mon, Kyoko-chan. We have _a lot_ to talk about after school, but for now I'm just glad you're alive. And where the hell are your clothes?"

"Oh, right!" The Black Veil leader did her best to cover herself up and sprinted towards the stairs. "Good thing I always have a spare..."

The two reached the class just a couple minutes late, before Tsuna and Gokudera, and went through most of the day like any other. This only managed to make poor Kyoko more and more nervous. _How exactly is Lal going to 'sort this out'?_ She kept asking herself. _I would never be able to kill Tsuna with my own hands... I shouldn't have agreed with those conditions._ The pure fear from the situation had overrun any good sense she had at that time the agreement was made, which in her eyes had been the fatal mistake. _I should have talked it out... And now, Tsuna will pay for my weakness. So this is what being a Black Veil really means..._ In the end, the Black Veil Leader figured out the evil scheme by the end of the economy class, just after the teacher's words:

"Great job with your cakes, class. Now why don't we stop on the boy's classroom and share it with them?"

Already nearing the boy's classroom, Kyoko stared into her cake, then into the classroom door where Tsuna awaited. _So, this is her plan... I have to find a way to sabotage it!_ However, when she almost at the door, Lal Mirch showed just beside the entrance. As if she could read her mind, the baby just shook her head slowly. It was a silent of saying: _Don't try anything. Do your part of the deal, or it will be even worse._ The Black veil's leader hesitantly entered the classroom beside her friends, the cake annoucement was made and the men rejoyced. Exactly like she expected, Bianchi nimbly sneaked inside the crowd and switched up her cake with a poisonous version of it. Tsuna noticed it and tried to reach her, but it was already too late.

"Huh... Where did she go?" He thought out loud. _Yes, he knows about it!_ Kyoko noticed. _Now all I have to do is pretend I didn't see it and offer it, then he'll refuse it and everything will be alright._ She put up a smile and called:

"Hey Tsuna!" He noticed her, so she added: "Tsuna, do you want to eat them?"

"Eeh!?" That reaction could only mean one thing. _On no... He's doesn't want to let me down._ Struggling to keep herself in a good mood, Kyoko tried to give him an excuse:

"Don't you like sweets?"

"N-No, its not like that..." With her plan failed, Sasagawa was quickly losing her calm over the situation. _He might actually guilt himself into eating it... What have I done?_ To make matters worse, Yamamoto approached the two, completely oblivious to the cake's dangerous nature:

"Wow, these cakes are delicious!" He then noticed the one nearest to him. "Can I have a piece, Kyoko?"

"Sure, have one." She replied, unable to find an excuse not to. _C'mon, Tsuna-kun... I know you can take care of this._ Just before his friend could grab a bite,Tsuna finally made his decision and slapped both pieces of poisonous cake into the air, startling all his classmates. The bullets came shortly after, along with the usual shenanigans that came with them. _Yes, he did it! Good job, Tsuna._

\- Later, on that day. -

"Poison cooking, you say?" Hana asked. It was near dusk, the classes had already ended and her and Kyoko were having the conversation she had been promised earlier on the way to their homes for quite a few minutes already. "This morning I'd call you crazy, but now... I'm not so sure. It was a very clutch save, if that's the case."

"I see you two have been doing a lot of catching up lately." Lal Mirch showed up in the two's path. Along with her were Nagi and none other than Bianchi again.

"Bianchi?" Kyoko gasped, already putting her hands forward to protect herself. "What are you doing here?"

"I was just talking to your teacher here." The poison cook explained. "I was telling her that, even though I won, I liked your guts quite a lot. And since Tsuna proved to be a tough little nut to crack, I'll probably have to stay in his house if I hope to spend some more time with Reborn."

"Hang on a second..." Hana asked. "The _Baby_ is your lover?"

"So, I was talking to Lal over here and she told aout your Black Veil organization." Bianchi continued as if Hana didn't exist. "I liked it quite a bit, I must admit. If you ever need my help, just give me a sign and I'll jump over to help as soon as I can." She completed with a serene smile. "Well, that's it. If you excuse me now, I have to return to my lover..."

"See you later." Lal bid farewell. "And about you, Hana... How much did Kyoko tell you?"

"Well, she's my best friend, so of course she told me everything." Hana explained.

"And what did you find of all this?" The baby questioned.

"Honestly, there are few things in this life that irritate me more than the thought of having to clean up after those immature boy's mess." Kurokawa confessed with an annoyed expression. "One of those things is trusting on those same kids to protect my best friend, so of course I'm in."

"Welcome to the Black Veil, then." Lal greeted her before turning her attention to Kyoko: "Seems like your family is growing rapidly, kid. If we keep this pace, we might actually not screw up the next time."

"Well..." The Black Veil leader replied, rather unsure of what to say. "I don't really..."

"And of course, that means we'll have to train even more this night!" The baby boasted.

"What!?" Kyoko shouted. "But what about sleep?"

"Oh, my child..." Lal commented with her psychotic grin. "That bed of yours is going to gather some serious dust this following month."

\- Chapter end -


	3. Chapter 3

\- The Black Veil Chronicles -

\- Daily Life arc -

Chapter 3: Crazy friends and their love!

"Are you sure you're ready for this, Nagi? It's really ok if you aren't."

Nagi was just beside the cherry tree stump of the Namimori natural park, looking undecisively at her instructor, Lal Mirch. The one asking her was Kyoko Sasagawa, who held a bat on her hand and was leaned over a cherry tree not far from there. Hana Kisaragi was also there, sitting by the pond and trying to pay attention to both the scene and the fishing rod in her hands. The baby had a very serious look in her eyes and held a large metal pot in her hands. A frantic noise of scratching came from inside, a clear indication that something inside it was eager to escape. They had been training since the classes' end and the sky was already well into the dusk.

"Y-Yes, I'm sure." The purple-haired girl agreed with a hesitant nod. "You are giving your all to train... I have to do that too."

"I'm not sure how fishing is going to help us, but sure." Hana complained. "Also, I'm pretty sure there are no fish in this pond."

"Here we go then, girl." Lal warned. "Stay strong."

The instructor reached out for the pot's lid and slowly unscrewed it, reaching out for the creature inside after getting rid of the cover. It was a grey bat, apparently uncapable of flying since it held on tighly to the Baby's hands and flapped its wings clumsily, but couldn't take off. As soon as it showed up, Nagi gave a step back and started shaking slightly, steering her sight away from the terrifying beast. The forest seemed to have become silent around the two, eager to see what happened next. The purple haired girl looked up again to her fear, gulped down any hesitation and took a step forward, extending her trembling hand ever so slowly to touch it.

"That's it." Lal said in a calm, assuring voice. "I'll let you hold it for a while."

Nagi's fingers made contact with the bat's small head and then went through its whole body, trying to get used to it. The creature seemed to be calmed by her touch, but that didn't stop her from retracting her hand a moment, still afraid of nearing it. She took a few more moments before approaching it again and slowly taking it into her hands. The beast was initially startled in being held by someone else, but it quickly grew used to it. The phobia seemed to be going away when the ungrateful bat pulled out his fangs and bit the hand holding it.

"Ouch!" Nagi flinched from the pain, but didn't let go. Being a vampire bat, it used the open wound to feed itself. Instead of immedeately throwing it away, however, the purple haired girl didn't seem to bother much: "H-hey, maybe he likes me."

"Give it back." Lal Mirch didn't seem one bit happy with that odd reaction, but didn't say anything about it while putting the bat back in its pot and closing the lid tightly. "Well, at least it was worth the effort of finding this thing. What else are you afraid of?"

"Lightning, I guess." Nagi awnsered. "And crowds."

"I don't really get how is this supposed to be training." Kyoko complained. Using the tree behind her as a foothold, she climbed upon the vertical baseball bat and tried to keep herself upright on top of it. She only lasted a couple of seconds before being forced to hug the tree and slide down.

"Don't worry, it will help you out quite a lot, eventually." Lal confirmed. "Just stay focused on completing your tasks as soon as you can. But first..." The sound of hurried steps quickly filled the lake. The responsible for them was Haru Miura, who stopped running when she saw them and pointed the finger to the Baby, shouting:

"You!" A short pause was made for panting purposes. "You didn't tell Haru the 'little project' Reborn had was to turn Tsuna into a Mafia Boss!"

"Oh yeah, forgot to tell you that." Lal commented, overflowing with sarcasm. "What about it?"

"How are you even supposed to help them in that?" The Midori middle student questioned. She took only a moment to notice Kyoko's bat, gasping in horror. "Hahi! Is this even real? Is Namimori going to turn into a war zone?"

"Hey, chill." Hana asked. "It's not like we're becoming hitmans or anything. We're here to make sure the boys don't screw up our Namimori with their shenanigans."

"Well, that's something I can fight for." Haru agreed. Despite looking a bit indecisive yet, she asked: "When do you come here to train?"

"Ah, you know, whenever we are not in class." Kyoko explained. She added with an exhausted look: "Every. Single. Day."

"You'll get a break on some sundays, don't worry." Lal explained. "So you can do your homework."

"Got it." The Midori middle student confirmed with a passionate shine on her eyes. "I'll make this Black Veil thing become the best Reborn support team ever, just you wait! But tomorrow. Right now I have to finish homework." She crossed the clearing and was already disappearing into the woods when she added: "See you tomorrow!"

 _That Haru seems like a nice person,_ Kyoko thought to herself. _Let's hope she stays here for a little longer next time._ Her concentration went then into balancing atop de bat, a task that was much harder than it seemed. It seemed like she was about to break her 3 seconds record when a stir near the lake took of her concentration and kocked her down once again. The source was Hana, who had finally found a fish in the pond. The catch was resisting fiercely, so she pulled the rod back as harshly as she could. The combined strenght ended up breaking the line, knocking the fisher off her feet.

"Ugh, that little..." Hana fumed. It took her a moment to notice the baby instructor standing right next to her. "What is it?"

"What to you think went wrong there?" Lal asked.

"I don't know... This rod's string is obviously not strong enough." Kisaragi complained.

"You didn't get it, then." The baby explained. "Well, I guess we've gone as far as possible for now. Let's call it a day."

Kyoko bid farewell to her newest family and headed back to her house before her brother could return and start suspecting about anything. Despite the immense work and the danger of the whole enterprise, of which she had a taste of just the other day, the Black Veil leader still had a feel of excitement towards the whole idea. There was no doubt that, ever since Lal entered her life, every single day was different from one another, interesting people popped up left and right and there was a sense of importance and objective that her life seemed to be lacking beforehand. All in all, not a bad tradeoff.

Not far from there, Lal Mirch watched from the center of the training field the Black Veil family splitting, ensuring that everyone had left for good. She then whipped out her communicator and sent out a signal to communicate with the team support:

"Sawada, come in."

"Lal, good to hear you." External operation's leader Sawada answered through the comm. "Report."

"Our subject has 0 preparation and abilities right now, but she has a lot of heart and seems to have come to terms with her fate. The flame is snow, as expected, so there's lots of potential in there. I've set up a team of guardians with the right flame types, but I'm not sure about their strenght yet."

"Well, we might have the answer for that. If everything goes right with the mission we're on here, we might get this generation a 7th Black Veil." Lal didn't react, so he added: "Do you have enough to request the equipment?"

"For some of them, I do." The Baby informed. "Let's start with Kyoko..."

\- The next day -

A relentless girl rushed through the streets of namimori wielding a suit of makeshift armor and a hockey bat. Well, at least as fast as one could rush inside that monster of an armor. That equipment was the result of a full all-nighter of coming to terms with the Baby's insane plan and her favorite hobby, costume creation. In the end, she decided to keep supporting the baby's plans, but in her own way. _And if that kid really wants to be a Mafia Boss, he better be strong._

Class would begin soon at the Namimori Middle, but Kyoko had to stray out of her regular path to make some last-second grocery shopping for mom and dad. She was already at the cashier, searching her wallet for some spare Yen to help the change. _Is Haru really ok already with all this? She seemed so scared at first..._ Her distraction ended up compromising her sleight of hand, and before she could do anything the coins were all scatered at the floor.

"Ah!" Kyoko exclaimed. "Oh, no..."

Before she could crouch to pick her change back, however, a tiny hand was already holding it up. It was a kid, around five years old, wearing chinese clothing and a small ponytail over the head. _Is it a boy or a girl? I can't really tell..._ The Black Veil leader took the yens back and was ready to thank her helper when the kid ran away without looking back. With the change back in her hand, she delievered it to the cashier and asked:

"Do you know who that was?" The answer came from behind:

"That's your to-be newest Black Veil member." At this point, Kyoko was already beggining to grow used to Lal showing up unexpectedly, but her statements still managed to awe her:

"You mean that kid?" Kyoko finished paying the cashier and left the store. It was just by the town's river, and the two slowly headed towards the bridge. When her teacher replied with a nod, she added: "You're taking this a bit too far now, Lal. He can't be more than 5 years old!"

" _She,_ " Lal clarifyed. "Is a famous hitman, known by the name Human Bomb. And she can take you down with a hand tied around her back, if you're curious. You should be honoured to have I-Pin on your team."

"Oh..." Kyoko couldn't respond with more than that, given all that shocking information. "Well, ok then. This mafia thing is somehow even crazier than in the movies, isn't it?"

"Which somehow is still less crazy than some of the folks in this town." The baby commented. "Hey look, it's Hana. Right on time."

"Hello, Hana!" Kyoko greeted.

"Hey." She answered, joining her friend on her walk. "Did you say something about me being 'on time'?" Lal Mirch was nowhere to be seen, however. The reason for that showed up just under the river's bridge: "Look, it's good-for-nothing Tsuna."

Tsuna apparently had just been tagged with a dying will bullet, since he was soaked, tired and wearing only his underwear. Next to him, stood Reborn, Gokudera and Yamamoto, and Haru could be seen crouched at the wall, still in her pajamas. A quick inspection revealed what seemed to be pieces of armor deep into the river, and remains of an explosion over the bridge. _Oh no..._ Kyko thought to herself. _Did Haru blow our cover? Is she hurt?_ She was desperate to come running to them, but a firm grip on her wrist stopped her just in time.

"Slow down." Hana asked. "I don't think they've figured it out about it yet. Just... Play it dumb. They'll never notice."

"Playing it dumb, huh?" The Black Veil leader thought out loud. "Fine. Let's hope it works out." The two got down the slope and approached the group. The first thing they heard was Haru commenting with a dreamy expression:

"I thought they only said those cheesy stuff in television!"

"She's doesn't regret it the slightest..." Tsuna noticed.

"Tsuna!" Kyoko greeted, trying her best to ignore his underwear. It immedeately caught his attention:

"K-Kyoko!"

"What is going on here?" Hana asked in a blank tone.

"Swimming so early? Aren't you a little cold?" Sasagawa asked. _I might have overdone it... Let's hope he doesn't notice it._

"O-oh..." Tsuna suttered. "I-I... Just... It's that, uh, there is a good reason for it." A shout suddenly bursted into the conversation:

"I'll save Haru as my last wish!" Haru was simply overflowing with joy, shouting nonsense and jumping into the air, despite the Decimo's best attempts at stopping her. Kyoko tried intervening again:

"You should put on some clothes, Tsuna, or you'll catch a cold."

"Uh, yes." He agreed. Miura did not stop, however, coming closer to finally declare:

"Tsuna, you're so... Wonderful!" She opened her eyes with the dreamy expression once more, adding: " _De-Ci-Mo!_ Seems like Haru is in love with you now!"

"W-what are you talking about?" The decimo answered, looking nervously around for some help. Sadly, he got none. She only kept going:

"I feel like I'm being hugged very tightly by you..." Tsuna could barely cotain a gasp while Haru approached his confort zone even more. "10th!" Desperate from some space, he gave up on staying calm and just ran away as fast as he could, but Miura simply chased after him. Hana mentioned:

"He's really an idiot." To others, it seemed like just another cool comment, but to her best friend it meant so much more.

 _So there it is..._ Kyoko concluded. She had taken too long to make up her mind on Tsuna, and now a smart, determined and brave girl probably had just decided it for her. Her friend Kisaragi tried to show some support by demeaning Tsuna's decision, but it failed to convince the Black Veil leader of anything. _Should I even still be part of the Black Veil?_ As it turned out, keeping a smile out and pretending everything was alright even when it wasn't weren't as easy as it seemed. Thankfully, neither of the other boys noticed it.

"Well, we better save Tsuna." Gokudera noticed, slowly walking into the dangling Tsuna and the desperate Haru underneath him.

"See you two later in class!" Yamamoto bid farewell. After the two and Reborn had reached a safe distance, Hana added:

"Had you decided?" Hana asked. She had always been against the idea of her friend and Tsuna becoming a couple, but declared that wouldn't fight her decision. "Before all this?"

"N-no. But I guess I don't have to worry about it anymore, do I? Maybe not even about the Black Veil..."

"Nonsense!" Seeming to have appeared out of nowhere, Lal Mirch suprised her student with a well placed slap on the nape. "You don't have to be the 10th's wife to lead the Black Veil. Although it does help a bit having her on the team." A quick glance to the side revealed that Haru was coming back to them. "I can trust you to not make an issue about it, can't I?"

"Yes, of crourse!" Kyoko defended. "I-I've made my decision. Tsuna-kun and Haru will make a good couple."

"I'm glad to hear that!" Haru shouted back. "Now that I love Tsuna, I'll give my very best to protect him!" She quickly caught Lal Mirch's glare, adding: "...And I'll be a little more stealthy next time."

"Good." The baby replied. "You two should meet in front of Tsuna tomorrow, so you can walk around without rising suspicion. Now go to class; this saturday, we're going to do some _real_ training."

\- A few days later -

Namimori's river seemed small and thin inside the town, but it actually grew quite a bit after taking in some tributaries, resulting in a large and calm body of water just a hour of travel away from downtown. That was a common spot for hobby fishermen, and on the right season the place would be crawling with families. Kyoko herself had been there a few times already with her family, so it was a welcome view. Only one question remained: _Why here, of all places? Someone could see us in here..._ All of the Black Veil had been called by Lal Mirch for her alledgedly 'super training', but so far only Haru, Hana and Nagi had come. They were sitting on a patch of grass just by the river, eagerly searching for any sign of the instructor baby. Nagi and Haru had met before at the natural park, but exchanged veyr little with each other. _Come to think about, we know so little about Nagi... If I want to call myself a friend of hers, I need to know at least a little bit about her._

"So, Nagi," Kyoko began. "You've never told us much about you. How's your family?"

"Oh, I guess I didn't, right?" She seemed a little nervous to talk about the subject, but after a brief pause she added: "Dad and mom are... Fine, I suppose. I haven't talked to them in a while. But I understand – They didn't really plan for my birth, so It's very nice of them already letting me stay in. I usually switch between dad's and mom's house so I don't become too much of a burden. Daddy just got back from the rehab, so he's looking very well, but I'm a little worried about all the loan sharks showing up at mom's house lately. I might have to stay there a little more than I planned..."

"Hahi!" Haru was already bursting into tears with the tear jerker story, interrupting Nagi with a tight hug. "Please, stop! I can't take this anymore..."

"I-I'm sorry I bothered you..." Nagi replied without any sarcasm.

"No, Nagi, It's alright." Kyoko explained. _Can a family not really want a kid? Specially someone as sweet as Nagi... She looks like she wouldn't harm a fly._ "We're here for you, right Hana?"

"It's way too late to say we aren't, I guess." She agreed. "Count on us, Nagi."

"Yes! We'll hug you until it gets better!" Nagi didn't seem overjoyed by Haru's hug, but she didn't resist it.

"Good to see you're going along well." It was Lal Mirch's voice. She had just came into their line of sight, carrying a large bag on the right hand and with I-Pin just beside her. "To those of you who don't know it yet, this is I-Pin. She's a professional hitman, but since her job is a little slow at the moment she decided to join the Black Veil and hone her skills with us." She gave the kid a slight push on the back, adding: "C'mon I-Pin, say hi."

"Uh."

"No, I-Pin, _hi_." Lal insisted. I-pin's face twisted into a strange expression. Haru knew what was all that about, but before she could do a proper reaction the 9 Mahjong pieces had already showed up in her forehead.

"Oh, no..." Haru cried out. "She is going to explode! Get her in a safe place!" _8 seconds already..._ She immedeately grabbed I-Pin and prepared to throw her at the river when Hana stopped her, shouting:

"Are you crazy? We don't even know if she can swim!" _7..._ In response, Miura took a step back a hurled I-pin at Kisaragi, replying:

"Alright then, you take care of this!" _6..._

"Hang on!" Hana pleaded. _5_... "Let's think this through, like we're supposed to do." 4... At this point, Kyoko couln't take anymore the idea of seeing her freinds hurt, so she snagged I-Pin and fell on the floor, trying to cover the kid completely. _If someone is getting hurt, it can't be anyone but me! 4..._

"K-Kyoko, please don't!" Nagi pleaded, trying to loosen Sasagawa's grip and save her from whatever was about to happen. _3..._ "I'll... I'll do it in your place!"

"Hahi!" Haru screamed, afraid that Nagi would actually succeed in her attempt. _2..._ "It's going to explode!"

"Ugh..." Was all that Lal Mirch said.

The instructor went through her bag and found what she was searching for: a comically-sized blue bazooka. She handily wielded it and, after releasing I-pin from Kyoko's hands, hit the kid with the bazooka. A large puff of blue smoke followed, covering eveyrone's sights. When it finally settled, everyone seemed fine, but the kid responsible for the whole confusion was nowhere to be seen. Instead, there was a lean, dark-haired chinese girl wearing white restaurant clothes and holding a knife on one hand and onions on the other.

"Oh, my..." She said. It took her a second to notice everyone around her. "You've sent 5-year-old me to explode in the future, didn't you?" After an embarassed nod from eveyrone, she let out a worried sight. "I'm definitely getting fired this time around..."

"Wait, you're from... The future!?" Kyoko asked, shocked.

"The ten year basooka, experimental version." Lal explained. "It allows you to trade places with yourself 10 years in the future. It also has a trigger system to bring them back when we are done, but it's not 100% relaible yet." _Better, but gimmicky._ The Baby thought to herself. _Just like everything else they send to CEDEF._

"I'm surprised you're not expecting this tipe of stuff already, honestly." Hana told Kyoko.

"Now that everyone's here," The baby instructor said. "It is time to begin our mission."

"...Which is?" Everyone asked in unison.

"To catch the God Fish!"

\- Chapter end -


	4. Chapter 4

\- Black Veil Chronicles -

\- Daily Life Arc -

Chapter 4: The god cod!?

"You mean the cod fish, right?" The quesiton came from Hana, born from stubborn, but helpless desire to have a normal day for a change.

"Yes... But no." Lal Mirch explained. "Kyoko, you should now what I'm talking about. Tell them."

"There is a legend around these parts." Kyoko's voice came out faint, declaring her dissatisfaction on the matter. "They say this lake hides a gigantic cod, a true monster of a fish that could eat a small man. It stalks the deepest parts of the river, eating the best catch before the fisherman can get it."

"Oh my!" Haru gasped. "And it is _for realsies_?"

"Yes, yes it is." The Baby teacher confirmed. "To put your skills, teamwork and tenacity to the test, you must take the god fish out, take a picture with it, and then let it back into the lake." Some Black Veil members seemed eager to ask questions, but they were interrupted: "'How will we do it?' Glad you asked." Lal opened up the bag some more and dove into it, searching for some equipment. She came back with two sets of scuba gear and a fishing rod.

"Wait, are we actually going underwater?" Haru asked. "What for?"

"Let me inform your roles." The baby said. She approached the one who questioned her first, handing her the fish hook. "You, Haru, get to be the bait."

"Hahi!" The poor bait screamed in response. "What do you mean?"

"The fish we're dealing with is not the kind which will fall for a regular bait." Lal Mirch explained. "It eats living fish, and we can't really control those. Therefore, you will dive into the river, search for the fish and grab its attention. Then, you must lure it as close as you can to the surface and hook it with this. Oh, and you can take the scuba gear as well."

"Good thing i've came prepared..." Haru commented. Much to everyone's shock, she grabbed off her own clothes and undressed right then and there, revealing a swimming suit underneath. "When Haru heard about a little expedition to the Namimori River, she couldn't help but get ready for a swim!"

"Good thinking." The baby complimented, handing her some scuba gear as well. Her next target was I-Pin. "I-Pin, you'll dive with her. I am trusting in your Gyoza Ken to drive off any dangerous predators on Haru's way. Both your Scuba's last for 15 minutes, which should be more than enough."

"No problem." I-Pin agreed. She had been conviced to lie to the Decimo's family about her training, to prevent Reborn from counting on her at the wrong time. Truth was, her martial skills were stronger than ever. "I've been a little rusty on underwater combat, but it's nothing I haven't done before."

"Now for you, Nagi." From Lal's look alone, it was easy to tell this task would be a true challenge. "I've scheduled this around the lunch time because we don't want any unwanted visitors while the mission is executed, but we might still get some. You are to stand on the road and stop them from getting to the river." The idea of interacting with strange people made Nagi shiver. She mumbled:

"B-But... What should I do to stop them?"

"I don't know, be creative." The instructor suggested. "Say that the river is closed because of some accident, block the road, anything like that. Try your best to sound natural. We're counting on you."

"I-I... Ok." After the almost positive response, Lal Mirch headed to the next member, handing her the rod and saying:

"Hana, you will have the most crucial role in this mission's success. Prove it to me that you deserve it."

"If the string holds, this oversized cod will hit the floor in no time." Hana boasted with a determined expression hid under the frown."You can bet on it."

"You can do it, Hana!" Kyoko cheered for her. The baby stopped right on front of the Black Veil leader, so she asked: "And what about me? What role should I take?"

"You are the leader, obviously." Was the instructor's reply. "Your job is to sit here and make sure nothing goes sour. Meanwhile, I'll be watching all of you and updating your status to your leader." A short pause followed Lal Mirch's explanation, to which she fumed: "Well, what are you waiting for? Get to work!"

Haru was not one least interested in hanging around in the boring, dry grass anymore, so she equipped her gear, held a tight grip on the fishing hook and took a dive into the water. The first sensations to hit her were the chilling cold and the soft brush of the current, but the real pearl in the shell only showed up when her eyes opened inside the goggles. The interior of the river was just so calm, so exotic and so deeply blue that it truly seemed more like another world in a distant solar system more than a part of Earth. The multitude of fish, algae and coral made the Midori student feel completely lost. _Can we really find the fish in 20 minutes?_

A stream of bubbles rushed down from the surface, encovering the other diver for a brief moment. I-Pin gave her teammate an encouraging nod, and after a brief hesitation Haru took a direction and began swimming deeper and deeper towards the bottom. She was still distracted by the occasional shoal of fish, but her protector was quick to redirect her whenever it happened. The expedition was going mostly well until a truly unique sight showed up in the blue depths; it had almost the size of a person, seemed soft as a pillow and floated around, boasting its beatiful colors that reminded the Midori student of a sunset.

 _A Jellyfish?_ Haru questioned. _On a river? That's amazing!_ There was something terribly wrong with a Jellyfish on that river, specially that big, as the well-informed Midori student knew. She extended her hand to try and touch it, but was interrupted by a harsh turbulence. A large bubble of breath air grazed just by her and hit the Jellyfish directly, pushing it away several meters. Behind her, I-Pin simply shook her head and pointed to their goal. _Ahh... But I just wanted to play a little with it_. Slightly sad, but resigned, Miura turned to the right way and kept swimming. Still, a strange aura seemed to permeate those waters. _Could there be something that Lal didn't tell us?_

It didn't take much more until the first shark showed up.

About the same time as these events occurred, a large jeep full of fishing equipment rode lazily through the street trail on the way to Namimori's favorite fishing spot. The trail was at it thinnest just before the river, when a small but dense forest left barely enough space to let two cars drive side by side. It slowed to a halt when an obstacle showed up in their way, a young purple-haired girl who wanted to be absolutely anywhere, except there. _Lal is really putting a lot of trust on me,_ she thought to herself. _I have to get over my fears, or I'll disappoint everyone. But can I really do it?_ Battling her shyness with all her strenght, she put up her hands and made a sign for them to stop. Much to her despair, it worked.

Three people walked out of the car. The first was a man that seemed to near his forties, buff, tall and tanned. He was trying his best to hide these features, however, under baggy fisherman clothes, a bucket hat and sunglasses. The second one was a young and beatiful blonde woman wearing large and round sunglasses, an overcoat too warm for the weather and a scarf over her head. The third one, presumably their son, seemed to be about Nagi's age, hiding most of his light brown hair with a red baseball cap and half of his face with a comically oversized turtleneck. His blue eyes, however, didn't seem to be the kind easily forgotten.

"Hello there, little girl!" The man greeted with a nervous smile. "Could you step aside so that we can reach the river?"

"Because we are just a nice family using our weeked to go fishing!" The woman explained.

"U-uh, I-I'm sorry, but..." Nagi managed to spit out, bowing to appologise. "The fishing spot is c-closed, for today."

"Really?" The happy family's father asked. "What for?"

"It's, um... An accident! Yes, an accident." The purple-haired girl explained. "Some people were hurt by a tree. I-it fell on them."

"Really?" The youngest of the three aksed. "What about the police? Shouldn't they be handling this? You're not wearing any uniform..." The boy's alledged mother glared at him, silencing the questions.

"Personnel's a little weak today, so they asked me to handle this." Nagi's stuttering seemed to be slowly fading off, as she noticed they somehow seemed convinced about the story. "I'm sure more of them will be here soon."

"Well, thanks for warning us then." The eldest one answered. "You're doing a great job out here. Keep it going!" He added with a thumbs up. The woman, however, only angrily grabbed the rest of her family and pulled beck into the jeep, saying:

"That's enough. See you around, kid."

 _Phew,_ Nagi thought to herself. _I really hope these are the only ones... I mean, how many people could show up in 20 minutes?_

Meanwhile in the riverbank, Hana Kisaragi was so concentrated in her mission of fishing that she barely even aknowledged her friend Sasagawa Kyoko sitting beside her. Haru and I-Pin had just dived, but the fisher was already tense and stressed, as if her anxiousness could somehow be hid under a scowl. The Black Veil's leader was being watched by Lal Mirch and evaluated in her ability to lead, but for her it was much more urgent to help her old-time friend out of that pinch. She decided to start up a conversation:

"Something you want to talk about, Hana?"

"No, why?" She defended. "Fishing is simple. I pull the rod, the fish comes up. If this second-hand line doesn't break, everything should go fine."

"Oh come on, you're smarter than that." Kyoko insisted, softening up her friend's expression. Hana only really did that when the two were together. "You've guessed by now there's more to it, in case Lal's words weren't enough."

"Sorry, I forgot I can't lie to you anymore." She replied, letting go of some tension and loosening her grip on the rod. "But what could I be doing wrong? I'm pretty sure that asking our 'teacher' would only get me a bump in the head."

"Hana-chan, you silly..." The Black Veil leader commented, leading her hand to the mouth to laugh. "You just did it."

"Huh?"

"I've never really liked fishing," Kyoko continued, staring at the sky while some old memories returned. "I don't really feel at peace like most people do. But dad tried to teach me the basics anyway. The fish, he said, can never be beaten by raw strenght, or the line might break, or he might escape from the hook. He can swim very well, after all, that's what he does."

"What do we do, then?" Hana asked, following the line of thought.

"We persist." She explained, turning her sight back to her friend. "When the fish goes out swimming with all it's got we give him some line, but never give up on the catch. Let him swim, let him tire. At one point, he's going to falter, and that's when we pull him out." The Black Veil leader tried to reduce the severity of those words with another light laugh. "Well, that's what he said, at least. I've always thought it applies to a surprising amount of stuff in life."

"Your dad is actually wiser than I thought." Kisaragi noticed. She seemed much more confident after the tip. "I'll try that out for sure, Kyoko. Thanks."

"You're welcome." She replied with a smirk. Sadly, their little moment was interrupted by the presence of Lal Mirch. "Is there something wrong, Lal?"

"I believe Nagi might be in trouble." The baby warned. "Go help her!" _You've done more than enough here, anyway._

Kyoko barely glanced back at Hana before catching a quick breath and heading straight for the woods entrance as fast as her legs allowed. The little trail that led back to the city used to be very long and thin on her whole way, but recently some lumberjacks were hired to clear it out and leave some space for an asphalt road, marking the path's entrance with a frew lines of tree stumps. They had done most of their job already, leaving less than a kilometer of thin trail left. If the people trying to get in managed to go through that small section, the way would become too wide to hold them back and their secret would be busted. _In short, if she's in trouble I really have to think fast._

"Please... The road will be back soon... Just hang on..." Kyoko immedeately recognized Nagi's voice, even though it seemed weak and desperate. Several other voices threathened to silence her:

"I don't see any cops, girl! Who are you trying to fool?"

"I just need to get my chainsaw back, really! You can't deny me from that!"

"That's it, I'm done waiting! We are going through!" A quick turn to the right revealed for Sasagawa not one, but several vehicles full of annoyed people trying to not have their fishing hollidays ruined. To the honest, it was quite a wonder for her that her little shy friend hadn't fainted at that point.

"Nagi, I'm here to help!" Kyoko said between panting. Her mind was already at full speed, desperate for a solution.

"Kyoko, I-I don't really think we can get out of this." Nagi confessed. One of the families had already grown tired of waiting and hopped back into their car. "I'm so-"

"I got it!" The Black Veil leader interrupted her friend. "Hold it a little longer, Nagi! I'll sort it out for us."

"Wait, Kyoko!" The purple haired girl pleaded, to no avail. "Please don't leave me alone again!"

Kyoko rushed through what was left of the roadside trees and went straight into the line of stumps just after, panting even more than before from the excess strain. _C'mon, it has to be somehwere close... There!_ Lying just beside a recently downed tree, there was a heavy-duty chainsaw with some fuel still in it. She approached the equipment and, after a couple of failed tries, managed to lift it and get an almost sure grip. _Now, how does this even work?_ Without the luxury of time, Sasagawa pulled every lever and pushed every button until a thundering noise took over the machine and the chain began spinning at amazing speeds.

 _Now, to the hardest part._ Kyoko approached the nearest tree still up by the road and, with the help of her entire weight, clashed the chainsaw into the wood. Small chips of wood began flying anywhere and the machine's kick was intense, but using all of her strenght, she was able to somehow keep it going. _Just hang on a little more, Nagi... I'll make them believe you!_

 _Hahi! This river makes no sense! Is Lal crazy or something?_

The one thinking that was Haru, who couln't help but to remark that in her mind while I-pin wrestled three white sharks so that she could go even deeper into the river unharmed. Even with precise hits of the Gyoza ken and careful manuevers, the martial artist was out of her turf and could be in danger if something didn't change fast. Sadly, Miura didn't know any martial art and felt that her intromission would only make matters worse. _And, worst of all, our tanks are running low already!_ Despite all that, her face lit up again by a very special sight: an 11-feet wide hole in the rock, hiding what seemed a large cave underneath. _If the fish isn't here, then it doesn't exist._ She snuck her head in to search him.

 _Here, fishy fishy fishy... Eek!_

A gigantic mouth lunged from the darkness, moving faster than a fish should ever be allowed to go. Haru barely managed to escape a bite and swimmed upwards to let it show its full size. It looked like a cod, alright, but certainly not one of this world, being as large as a small car and almost as long as a bus. Forgetting her good sense for a moment, the Midori student approached the fish, put the hook in his lip and then retreated as quickly as humanly possible towards the surface.

I-Pin took only a moment to notice all that had happened, since the white sharks were scared off by the monstruous fish swimming at full speed in their direction. The two Black Veil members headed as quickly as they could to the surface, but the cod swam even faster and it seemed like it would reach them much sooner than they could reach the shore. Haru was already flinching to avoid getting her feet bitten when the fish finally stopped. _It's hesistant... It doesn't want to go to the surface. It must have figured out our plan!_ With her mission accomplished, Haru grabbed the line and gave it a quick pull.

Hana received the notification shortly before the two divers surfaced back, and had a little more than a second to prepare for the massive tug-of-war that enused. The ground in front of her feet started deforming into piles as the fisher did her best to stand ground against the monster. _The legends weren't kidding about this thing... It really is a monster!_ Thankfully, the days she spent fishing at the national park weren't wasted and she knew best pose to keep figthing. _Let's try what Kyoko said._ Instead of figthing with her full force, Kisaragi reduced her tension as much as possible and let the fish some line to tire it out. _The question is... Do I have enough line to tire out this thing?_

Now far from there, Nagi had already resorted to using her body to shield the cars from crossing the road, ignoring all the protests in her way and occasionally repeating her same old excuse from before. The man in the car was having none of that, threatening with the car's engine and pushing her back bit by bit with each little advance. _I don't think he'd run over me, but that's not the real problem..._ While the purple-haired girl was distracted with that vehicle, another one took the opportunity to slip by her and headed for the fishing spot, turning out of her sight. _Oh no!_ Incapable of coming up with a plan, she simply followed the runaway to see it leaving.

 _Blam_!

The earth-shaking sound stopped immedeately every single protest, attracting all of them towards the source of the noise. Much to everyone's surprise, a large tree had in fact just fallen in the middle of the road, missing the car that slipped away by a little more than a foot. Thankfully, the residents of the car weren't harmed, and it simply turned back and embarrassingly headed back home. That single near-accident was more than enough to calm the previously enraged crowd, which then turned to their saviour:

"I'm sorry I doubted you, little girl." One of the most aggressive men apologized. "Looks like we need to let the lumberjacks finish their job first."

"Oh, my... I hope I didn't hurt anyone unintentionally." The lumberjack in the crowd apologized.

"An apology's not enough!" Shouted another one on the crowd, this time a woman. "You need to get a 'danger' sign and put it here before anyone else gets hurt!"

"Yeah!" Many people shouted back.

Having found a new reason to get mad about, the mob turned their backs to the river and followed the man back towards the city, leaving Nagi and Kyoko on their own again. The Black Veil leader had catched a bruise or two from wood chips and was nearing exhaustion, but that didn't stop her from smiling at seeing her friend regaining her integrity once again.

"You... You really got my back." Nagi noticed, opening a timid smirk. "You're the best, Kyoko." Kyoko blushed slightly by the compliment, but answered:

"No, you're the best. Come on, they should be wrapping up there. Let's see if they can use some help."

Just as Hana feared, the fish catching techinique was probably great for regular sized fish, but that was no ordinary cod. The fish had been pulling for too long already and the reel would run out of line very soon. To make matters worse, trying to fight at full strenght with the line completely stretched like that was just asking for it to break. But Kisaragi was not one to panic; in face of despair, all she did was close her eyes and conclude: _this means I'll have to improvise._ After just a moment of hesitation, she released the troll and just let it spin.

At first, the idea seemed ridiculous, as the god fish noticed its freedom and swam away at double the speed. When the line was almost compltetely strechted, however, it suddenly stopped moving. _It thinks it's free. Time to act!_ Harnessing a strenght she wasn't even aware of posessing before, Hana held on tightly on the trolley and spun it back at full force, taking the cod by surprise and bringing it to surface before it could even react properly, finally revealing the fisher her catch's true size. _So that's why it took so long._

"Wow, look at the size of this fish!" Kyoko shouted as she reached the scene with Nagi. Lal Mirch showed up quickly after, sporting a rare satisfyed smile on her face.

"Excellent job, everyone." The baby confirmed. "Let's take some pictures, shall we?"

The Black Veil's instructor resigned to take the pictures, with the god fish lying on the back while the team who caught it lined up in front with large, confident smiles. The first few pictures came out really great, with Kyoko's friends quickly giving up on the pose to hold her up and throw her in the air a few times, but the mood changed drastically in the next photos when the giant cod started to move once again. It trapped Haru in its huge mouth and jumped back into the water before anyone could understand what had happened.

"Haru-senpai!" Nagi screamed.

"We need to save her!" I-Pin decided. Before she could jump in back, however, she was stopped. Kyoko's expression had naught but pure determination in it. She calmly asked:

"Lal, do it."

"That's my girl."

After the remark, Lal Mirch whipped out her pistol and fired 3 bullets at the Black Veil leader. The first one hit her in the head, as usual, but the other two had an unique blue color and were aimed at her legs. A burst of energy ripped out her clothes and a white flame sported out of her forehead. _I will save Haru from the fish!_ Dying will Kyoko didn't think twice before diving into the river, swimming fast enough to create a vortex of water in her wake. She caught up on the fleeing fish in no time and caught it by the tail, resisting easily its attempt to run free.

"Gluub Gluurb!" She boasted.

Still gripping firmly on the fish, Sasagawa began spinning it rapidly around herself, gaining speed at an alarming rate. When she was satisfyed with the speed, her hands let the cod go, hurling it upwards with enough force to send it out of the water and back into the land. The impact forced the fish to return everything on its belly, releasing a somewhat still healthy Haru from her prison. The monster fish had little time to rest, because Kyoko showed up once more at the ground to pick it up and throw it all the way back into the water. The dying will energy faded soon after the move was done, causing the Black Veil leader to collapse in exhaustion.

"Uh... Did I save her?" She managed to mumble. Nagi helped her sitting up.

"Wow, you've saved me too!" Haru's look was frightenly similar with the one she had when Tsuna had saved her. "You're so wonderful Kyoko!" Thankfully for Kyoko, instead of a love confession all she got was a hugging tackle. "You're my best friend forever now!"

"What did you just call her?" Hana's voice had a bitter taste of jealousy in it.

"Hm, interesting..." Lal Mirch commented, picking up a small black box near a big pile of fish saliva. "Looks like we've got ourselves a little reward besides the pictures." She approached Kisaragi and handed it to her. "I believe it's for you."

"Eeew, was that _inside_ the fish?" Hana questioned. The baby simply rolled her eyes and opened the box for her. "It's a bracelet..."

"Try it on." Lal suggested. It was light grey with thin blue lines running through it and had two large, rounder ends that almost touched each other. "Do you like it?"

"It's a little flashy, but it looks nice." Kisaragi commented.

"Well, it's yours now." The instructor informed. "Just make sure you don't use it near the boys." That was more than enough hint for Hana about what is was all about, to which she answered with a confident nod. "I'm glad to see you're also in one piece, because next week there'll be an even bigger mission!"

"Yay!" Haru screamed in joy, jumping up and down out of pure excitement. Much to her dismay, however, the rest of the Black Veil seemed much more ready for a warm bed. "Folks?"

"Take a break, Hana!" Everyone replied in unison. "Please!"

"...Okay."

\- Chapter end -


	5. Chapter 5

\- Black Veil Chronicles -

\- Daily Life Arc -

Chapter 5: Facing your fears? The Black Veil goes to the zoo!

"Please sis, you have to do it for me! If you help convincing him, he'll join us to the extreme!"

Kyoko Sasagawa was on her way to school accompanied by her brother, Ryohei. Despite the boisterous, loud and sometimes incovenient attitude he sported most of the time, she couldn't have asked for a better older brother all these years; the number one boxer of Namimori middle cared deeply for his little sister and never backed down on protecting her, a stubborn attitude that once rewarded him with a light scar on the forehead. Since then, the younger of the Sasagawa had grown quite a lot and was learning to take care of herself, but that's something that he still wasn't aware off. _I never considered telling him to stop because it is so important to him, but now..._

Lal Mirch's words had been decisive on the matter when Kyoko asked for an exception: _"No Vongola can know about the Black Veil"_ , she said. _"I know you love your brother, but you just have to understand that you're protecting him the best you can this way."_ _Can I really protect someone as strong as my brother? How?_ It was straining for her, and only bearable because she knew he did the exact same thing to her when it came to his own fights. _He still believes I'm the silly little kid from before, and that I don't know that boxing is very real and very dangerous... But for how long will he fall for it?_ One way or another, the acting had to continue.

"I'm sorry, brother, but I don't think Tsuna likes your 'boxing' thing." Kyoko replied gently. "He seems pretty busy lately, if you ask me."

"Well, you do too." Ryohei noticed. "What have you been cooking up lately, anyway? You've been getting home later than ever! Mom and dad are going to ground you if you keep it like this."

"I know, I know..." Kyoko replied. "It's just that... That..." She wanted badly to think of a clever way to turn her problem into a metaphor, but none came.

"Hey, sis!" Her brother interrupted, holding her in a friendly armlock. "You know you can tell me anything, right? There are no secrets between us."

"I know." She embarrassingly agreed, putting up a smile to hide her thoughts. "I-It's just hard to explain, that's all."

"Hm..." Ryohei mumbled while rubbing his chin. "When you have a complicated problem, you should always count on your friends. They make even the toughtest problems simple to the extreme!" He explained. _I'm not sure it works that way,_ was Kyoko's opinion on the matter, but few things hurt her more than busting her big brother's bubble.

"I'll make sure to count on them, then."

"Excellent!" A boxing colleague was passing by, so her brother joined him. "I'll see you later today, sis! And try not to get home late this time!"

"Alright." _Well, I am counting on my friends, in a way... But the leader's role is mine._

It still escaped Kyoko what could have been the logic behind choosing her, of all people, for such an important position. No one could say she had been useless to the Black Veil when requested, sure, but in her eyes that was far from enough to warrant such an important title. One day little Sasagawa could choke on a crucial part, and then it wouldn't be just her life on the line. Because of that, lately there had been a little voice in her head telling her to resign the title, maybe even give up on Lal's organization it entirely. So far it had been little more than an echo from the subconscious, and with a bit of luck it would stay that way.

Kyoko was distracted from her thoughts by a distant, but histerical scream she knew all too well:

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon!"

Tsuna was in his underwear again, sprinting at an amazing speed towards the school. Ryohei noticed that and, deciding he had his share of waiting, tried to grab him by the arm to call his attention. The Decimo would have none of that, however, and kept on his running with Namimori middle's best boxer on his arm. _Oh, Tsuna... Why can't I have your determination? It seems like nothing in this world could stop you from becoming the Mafia Boss._ The Black Veil's leader picked up her brother's dropped bag from the ground and headed for the school. She found her brother and Tsuna near the entrance and kept her acting like the usual, down to a fault.

"My brother's very energetic, isn't he?" Kyoko told Tsuna as Ryohei left the two on their own. "But he's a great person." From that point on, the words simply flowed out without her consent: "But you're a great person, too! I'm thrilled about it." _Oh no... Better cover it up so he doesn't notice._ "It's been a long time since I've seen him so excited." Tsuna seemed very confused on the matter, so the younger Sasagawa simply laughed and let him be before she could make any other embarassing statement: "Well then, I'll see you in class, Tsuna!"

"Y-you too, Kyoko." He managed to mumble. Kyoko separated from him and headed for her locker, but stoppped just before opening it when she noticed someone had watched the whole scene:

"You still like him." It was Hana, leaned on her own locker and ensuring with the occasional glance that no one else was there to watch. Her tone confirmed it was not a question.

"It's not like I want to." The Black Veil leader tried to defend herself, despite her exhausted tone. "If liking someone had an off button, I'd just press it and get out of Haru's way." She lazily opened up her locker and picked up the school supplies, then shut its door and leaned on it to face her friend. "You know I would."

"If that insane baby were here, she'd probably tell you to 'toughten up' or something of the like, but I think that's just stupid." Kisaragi commented. "You can't force yourself out of it, Kyoko. If anything, you should tell Haru the truth and deal with the situation like adults."

"No!" Kyoko denied. "I can do it. I'll get over Tsuna, for the sake of our friendship. For the sake of the Black Veil..." Hana let out a sight in response, followed by a soft smirk reserved for her best friend only.

"Oh, Kyoko... Just don't let this 'Black Veil' thing get over your head, alright?"

"Look who's talking!" Sasagawa replied, nodding towards Hana's newest bracelet barely visible from her bag. "Can you tell me already what does this do, or why is Bianchi training you separately?"

"No, not yet." Kisaragi confessed. "Lal says it'll 'ruin your surprise' or something like that. To be honest, I'd like to see the look in your face if I ever put this to use."

Kyoko agreed with a happy nod. _Hana, thanks,_ Said her eyes. _I wouldn't be able to do this without you._

\- A few days later -

The Namimori national park had never been quite as full since the day the largest cherry tree died: it was actually the first time the entire Black Veil had reunited. It was still very early in the morning, with long shadows coming out from the forest's trees and light yellow sky above everyone's heads. Kyoko and Haru had survived a near-death situation only a few days ago and were busy telling the details to their other friends when the team's instructor, Lal Mirch, made her presence known. Despite her previous statement that the day's mission would be a 'walk in the park', her expression told another story. She began:

"Greetings, Black Veil." The conversations all stopped in respect for their instuctor. "As some of you probably already know, Reborn invited Kyoko, Haru, Bianchi, I-Pin and the Vongola family to help Tsuna search for his trademark animal at the zoo. I had a little plan for some fun training for us while they were busy with that, but our intelligence team has come with some grave news." A short pause was made to let the information sink in. "Someone is planning to attack the Vongola family while they're at the zoo."

"What do you mean with 'someone'?" Kyoko asked. "We don't even know who it is?"

"It's very incomplete information, I know." Lal Mirch apologized. "But getting the little intel we got cost us a lot of effort and some luck on top of it."

"Our first real mission!" Haru commented, oblivious to the danger. "How exciting!"

"Do we know how are they planning to attack us, at least?" Hana questioned.

"Yes." The baby instructor answered. "Their plan is to set up a two-stage explosion: the first stage is meant to burst open the zoo's cages, setting the animals free. The second stage will be hid on several of the zoo's animals, set to blow up when Tsuna or his family nears it." She showed up a small grey package with a few buttons on its lower face and a small light emitter to signal when it was armed. From its tiny size, it seemed able to fit in some absurdly tight spots. "You disable it by pressing the middle button, then the left one. Simple as that."

"Hahi!" Miura screamed. "That's dangerous!"

"It is." Lal added in a dark tone. "This isn't a drill anymore, girls. The lives of Vongola, our own, even those of innoccent people could be in grave danger because of this terrorist attack. Can I count on you to succeed?" Some silent nods followed, but the silence didn't annoy the baby. _They know how serious this is. Good._ "Kyoko, your job this time will be only to distract Tsuna and the others while they solve the situation. That's not what I had in mind for such as occasion, but we can't risk having Reborn suspicious about us."

"Well, when you put it that way..." Kyoko replied. Her brother's words quickly returned to her mind, and now they finally seemed to make some sense. "I wish you guys best of luck. I'm sure you can do it."

"We'll handle it, no problem!" Haru commented. "Just make sure you take good care of my Tsuna while I'm out, ok?" _That definitely sounded like a threat,_ Hana realized, but the soft tone was enough to fool Kyoko:

"Don't worry, Hana." The Black Veil leader replied. "I'll protect him, I promise."

"Great." Lal interrupted the two before they had time to go any further on it. "You go on to Tsuna's house, Kyoko. The rest of you will follow me to the zoo while we split up the danger zones amongst you..."

It was still barely morning when the Black Veil arrived at the Namimori zoo, a rather large and well built structure for a town of its size. It housed, along with other things, the african big 5, a rare meditating red panda, several dangerous reptiles, a sizeable aquarium and a full colony of primates. Opening hours had just began, and apart from the response team there were very little people on the zoo. Lal Mirch went directly to the highest point in complex, a ceiling over the central plaza's food court, and supervised as the team split up to their chosen areas.

I-Pin took upon herself to go for the zoo's main avenue, where the most famous herbivores were displayed. That was the spot most likely that Tsuna and his Vongola would pass by, therefore she was chosen for being the only one capable of acting without rising suspicion from anyone. The cages on that section were much less guarded and protected, making their entrance a very simple feat compared to the others. Instead of that, the little hitman found a much more annoying obstacle: it was Lambo, strolling around the street for no apparent reason.

"Brocolli monster!" I-Pin shouted angrily, already getting in a fighting position.

"A-ah! get away from me!" Lambo shouted back. I-Pin contained herself, however, for the benefit of the mission. Lal Mirch had spent over a hour painstakingly explaining to her 5-year-old self the importance of keeping the Black Veil in secrecy but she still didn't quite grasp it completely. "No. We don't fight now." The little hitman managed to say. "I need your help."

"A-ha! So you need the one and only great Lambo to help you? I'll get your problem solved in no time, you can bet on it!"

"Animals have bombs." I-Pin explained, pointing towards the ground "Find them and bring them here."

"You bet!" The Bovino member happily agreed. "Wait, did you say 'animals'?"

"Go get them, brocolli!" She insisted, kicking Lambo into the nearest animal pit. She then returned her attention to the primates. "Hm... Maybe monkey help."

Bianchi chose the reptile section, for obvious reasons. It was a very secluded area of the premises, a medium-sized building that was heavily protected by security. She was absolutely sure of being able to surpass any guards on her way when an unexpected predicament popped into her mind: _Hang on a second. If I kill these guys, it'll probably show in the news or something, and then we're busted._ Flustered by that unusual limitation, she quickly noticed that her recipes were surprisingly lackluster of non-deadly options. _Well, bummer. I'll try being nice to them, then..._

Hana Kisaragi headed straight for the zoo's aviary, a covered corridor made mostly in light wood that protected most of its birds with thick glass and light metal grids. _Security doesn't seem too tight around here, so..._ A quick search revealed the door for the owl's cage wasn't locked, so she opened the entrance and went inside the vivarium. _It seems much smaller on the inside._ The birds inside it quickly noticed the intruder, but because it was daytime they didn't seem much encouraged to move. The Black Veil member slowly approached each of the owls and searched inbetween their feathers for any strange body lying in it. On the last one, she finally found it; the explosive was just like the one shown to her earlier, but it also had a black flower engraved in it. _There it is! And it's disabled now. Let's head back for the cage's entrance..._

"Hey, you!" A voice called from outside the bird cage. It was one of the zoo keepers, returning with a sack of food. "You can't go in there!"

"It's an emergency." Hana tried to explain, but without showing him the explosive to avoid getting the situation into local news. "Just back away and no one gets hurt."

"Security! We have an intruder!" The man shouted. The sound of hurried steps increased rapidly as they approached the owl cage.

"Ugh, fine then..." Hana fumed. She held on tighly to her bracelet, and the blue lines around its body began shining harshly. "...Let's do this the hard way."

Nagi picked the aquarium, not because it was an easy task or personal preference, but by Lal Mirch's recommendation. Being very good at avoiding people, she had little to no trouble going past any guards on her way into the maintenaince section. There were several separate tanks that followed an underground path, all intricately connected away from visitor's eyes by a waterway system that led into the same river wbich ended up in the amusement park's little lake not far from there. Several metal scallfolds hung over such waterways, allowing the zoo staff to quickly move from tank to tank and follow closely any animal transference from a safe distance. Using the structure to quickly move between the instalations, the purple-haired girl didn't think twice about picking the hardest challenge right off the bat, following nothing but her teacher's recommendations.

After undressing her outer clothing to reveal the swimming suit underneath, Nagi took a deep breath and jumped into the tank to search for the bombs. It was a transfer tank being used for storage purproses, so the water was different from the regular display tanks, dull and very dark. The fish that hid in it hadn't been showcased for a few weeks ever since an accident left someone in the hospital for several days, and she could very well be the next one. Just the thought of being attacked by that unnatural monster gave her more chills than the cold water ever could.

The first specimen of the fish that scared so much appeared hastily, as a long, slimy body slowly sliding her way. The eletric eel, the second most terrifying thing possible for a person with astraphobia, was right there, in front of her. And it didn't seem very happy. _It's ok. I need to be afraid, or I won't be able to use what Lal taught me... My secret skill._

"I'm impressed, I must say." Lal Mirch commented. It was just another day of training for the other girls, but all that Nagi had to do was interact with an unusually large cockroach as long as possible. "After all these days of training, you've never once questioned why am I doing this with you."

"W-Well, I'm never been trained by anyone before." She replied, lettting the cockroach perform circles around her hand. Despite Kyoko's, Hana's and Haru's terrifyed reaction to the oversized insect, the purple-haired girl didn't really bother as much with her presence. "Is this any different from normal?"

"Yes, it is." The baby confirmed. "You have a very special gift, Nagi. The kind that is throughly sought after by Mafia organizations. The power to create illusions."

"Illusions?" Nagi questioned. "Like, for other people?"

"Exactly. The secret behind it lies in your fear, you see. Fear is a powerful emotion, and as such the first that can trigger your flame. From that, you can turn whatever is going on your head into the reality for someone else. Give yourself enough training, and it becomes the reality for anyone... Even the universe itself."

"That seems... Difficult..."

"That's why I've been training you." Lal insisted. "I've been exposing you to the scariest things I can get my hands off, so you can learn to react to your fear and turn it into a weapon for yourself." At that moment, the cockroach decided to fly. Nagi gasped in surprise:

"Aaaah!" And with her shout, a purple explosion took over where the insect was. The smoke spreaded out, but there was no sign of the insect to be found. "Did I.. Just..."

"No, not yet." The baby showed up with the cockroach in her hand. It seemed to be positively dead for the first few seconds, but it got back up and flied away like nothing happened. "But that's already enough to have some fun, don't you think?"

The Eel's ruthless advance triggered Nagi's fear instinct just in time to let her protect herself from it: she extended her hand forward and a cloud of bats materialized from the tip of her fingers, flying forward as it they were on air instead of water. The stream of dark creatures immedeately pushed back the fish and circled it, causing it to panic and try to shock its foes, with little effect. Exhausted and out of charge, the Eel slowly drifted toward Black Veil's recently discovered illusionist. She turned the fish around and found an explosive strapped to it.

 _That's it, I did it! Let's hope I don't screw up on the other Eels now..._

Haru had chosen what was perhaps the most challenging section, the one with the dangerous carnivores, not because it was hard but because she thought lions to be very pretty. _And bears, those are pretty awesome too! Let's go check them._ Being an intelligent and prepared Midori student, she had a solid and well-thought plan to infiltrate the large solid-steel bar cages that protected the zoo's greatest threats from escaping without encountering trouble with the staff. Being Haru Miura, however, that plan obviously involved a costume.

"Bring your daughter to work day?" Asked the zoo's caretaker that happened to be on the watch at the time. The young girl did have an uniform just like his, but he didn't recall any notifications for such a day. "Are you sure about that?"

"Hahi! Of course I am!" She insisted. "And I've got zoo training from my dad, so don't worry about me getting into the cages or anything."

"Whose daughter are you?" The man asked.

"Oh, you know..." Haru said slowly.. "The new guy."

"Joe?" The man asked. "Actually, you _do_ look a little like him. You have fun, then."

"Thanks!"

As soon as the zoo keeper left the scene, Miura snatched some cage keys and got herself inside the bear's domain. Hidden near the rocks, the huge mammal took a second before noticing the intruder, immedeately approaching her and standing on its hind legs, showing its full size. It let out a massive, ear-shattering roar at the domain's threat. Not one to be easily startled by a mere oversized teddy bear, Haru imitated the bear's pose and retrieved the roar:

"Rooooooaaaargh!"

The bear took the answer as a challenge, preparing to lash out on its enemy with its huge bear claws. In response, the brave Black Veil member simply rushed at him and covered the huge beast with a tight hug. While the animal was still startled by the move, her hands searched frantically for any sign of the bomb that had to be present there. _Here it is! On its back!_ Before she could remove it, however, the huge animal had decided it did not enjoy being hugged and lunged out with its powerful jaw to bite its hugger.

"No! Bad bear!"

Seemed slightly annoyed by the bear's teeth about to reach her, Haru held on tightly on its furs and violently arched her back towards the ground, letting out a powerful battle shout in the process. The beast's head hit the ground hard, quickly reminding it some manners. She then retrieved the explosive, deactivated it and returned her attention towards the very confused bear to explain to it what had just happened:

"Do you think you can just attack people like that?" Haru lectured him. "Someone who just gave you a _hug_? Well, you better watch out, because I've been training my fighting skills with I-Pin very hard. If I see you misbehaving today again, I won't be so nice to let you go. Got it?" The bear nodded embarassingly. "Good. Now be a good bear and sleep until the people come see you."

The team was almost a hour into its mission when Lal Mirch decided to inspect their progress. At this point the zoo was already beginning to see quite a bit of visitors, including Tsuna and Kyoko, as well as most of the Vongola family. With the exception of the leader, the Black Veil had all been given a short-range communicator to allow the baby instructor some control over the girls and their progress on each section. She requested:

"Black Veil, report."

"I couldn't get in." Bianchi commented in a disappointed tone. "I can't really take out the security without killing them, but I-Pin's got me covered."

"Monkeys help I-Pin." I-Pin explained. She had instructed the primates to hide the pile of bombs under a large rock, where she had the care to disable them one by one. As soon as Tsuna closed in, the little hitman issued a training exercise to pretend she was just playing with them. "They very good at finding bombs. No one see us."

"Things got a little messy around here." Hana confessed. She had to tip-toe to avoid stepping over the knocked out bodies of three buff security guards before taking the latest deactivated bomb into the trash container. There was no sign of what had knocked out the guards, except for their teared-up uniforms. "But there aren't that many bombs in this section, so I should be over soon."

"I-I'm doing my best, but..." Nagi apologized. "There are so many in here!"

"Hahi!" Haru exclaimed. "There are a lot over here too! I'm not sure I can do it in time!"

"You two, focus on the animals' explosives." Lal mirch instructed. "We have no idea how much time we have left, but I can assure you it isn't much. To work!"

"Oh, they aren't here!" Tsuna shouted, attempting to body block Kyoko from seeing the otters. He was desperately trying to hide all his friends from her, and she had little option but to pretend it worked. "What a shame! Seems like they aren't here." He glanced at the side for a second before sprinting and shouting: "Lions! Let's see the lions!"

"Huh?" The Black Veil's leader replied. "Alright..."

There was no denial that Tsuna was taking their little adventure very seriously. _Does he take this as a date?_ Just the thought of breaking either his or Haru's heart by choosing a stance on the matter was too much for her to bear. That, along with being forced to watch her friends struggle with a life-threatening situation without being able to help, was taking its toll on Kyoko's calm. _Just trust them, Kyoko. They can do it._ Unaware of the danger around him, the Decimo noticed Gokudera near some thugs and stopped for a moment, giving the two a second to rest.

"Tsuna, are you alright?" Kyoko asked. No matter how unassuming her fake personality was, no one would ignore his unusual behavior. "Don't you want to stop a little and rest?"

"K-Kyoko chan!" He reacted upon seeing her. "It's dangerous here!"

"What's the problem?" _Wait, does he know about it too?_ Tsuna responded by grabbing her hand and replying:

"It doesn't matter, let's run!"

It was then when the explosions happened. Only a few happened in clear sight; most of them broke the cages in carefully hidden points, simultaneously making the bombs hard to find and allowing the animals to escape without raising any alarm. Lal Mirch managed to see all of the explosions and was more nervous than ever. _Just like I feared. It's time to make some adjustments to the plan._ After confirming no one had been hurt by the explosions, she announced by the communicator:

"You can all progress with the plan like nothing happened. I'll handle the setback. Lal out."

Meanwhile, Kyoko was being frenetically dragged left and right by a desperate Tsuna, trying to decide if he did discover about the threat or was still just trying to keep her away from his friends. The rush led to some topsy steps and he ended up tumbling on his way to the next animal cage. Much for the two's surprise, he ended up sliding right in front of a lion pack. _This is bad... They could still have a bomb!_ The Black Veil's leader wanted desperately to take Tsuna away from there, to stop the lions on their tracks or just warn about the bombs, but it was hard to believe it would help at all. For all she knew, their fate was already sealed.

"Attention, visitors." The zoo staff announced. "The lions have escaped their cage. Please leave the premises as quickly as possible..."

"Save me!" Tsuna yelled, paralized in fear.

"Tsuna-kun!" Kyoko called for him. _I-I'm not sure if I can take this anymore... I have to something about this!_ In a very well welcomed, but short-lived relief, the alpha male of the lions decided to ignore Tsuna, turning his attention to the Black Veil's leader. But without the help of a dying will bullet, there was very little that she could do but to crouch to try and protect herelf for the mighty creature's pounce. "Tsuna-kun...!"

"Kyoko-chan!"

Defying all of his good-for-nothing fame, the 10th Vongola leader surpassed his fear and got back on his feet, putting himself between Kyoko and the lion. His expression and stance were dead set on protecting her, even if it meant death for him. _If only that lion wasn't about to explode..._ Both leaders in the making closed their eyes and prepared for the worst.

"EXTREME straight!" The source of the shout was none other than Ryohei Sasagawa, who managed to appear in the last second to knock the lion out in one swift blow.

 _It... Didn't blow up?_ In what could only be defined as some sort of miracle, not a single explosion could be heard through the region. _They did it! They saved us all!_ Kyoko couldn't help but be even more admired by Tsuna's selflessness in such a dangerous situation. His bravery didn't simply leave her in awe, it also brought to surface some not so old feelings she previously wanted gone. For the first time in quite a while, the other girl's feelings towards the Decimo ended up completely overlooked. _If she wants the Decimo, she better deserve it more than me._

While Haru, Bianchi, Kyoko and I-Pin reunited with the Vongolas to help collect all the runaway wild animals, Nagi and Hana reunited with their instructor, Lal Mirch, back at the food court. With all the visitors long gone, most animals freed and heading towards the park and the zoo staff after them, this left the central plaza a very empy place. This allowed them to easily collect all the disabled explosives and pile them up in plain sight to examinate it a bit.

"Well, at least we got the crucial bombs out of the way in time." Hana noticed in a tired tone. She then focused back on her bracelet. "I never thought I'd use this thing, but I must admit it's pretty handy."

"I told you the fishing lessons would pay out." The baby commented.

"But..." Nagi began. "What about the explosions? Aren't you worried that Reborn might find something strange about them?"

"You learn some fun facts when you develop the skill of talking with animals." Was Lal's response. "Hippos, for example, are excellent liars."

"Are you actually serious right now?' Hana asked. Neither of them seemed to have undrstood her question, so she sighted and nodded. "Go on."

"I've made one of them convince everyone it was Lambo's fault." The baby continued. "That dumb cow only remebers his name because he keeps repeating it all the time, so we should be fine. Still... That was awfully close." Her attention shifted then towards the bombs, taking one of them to examinate. It barely balanced in her tiny hand. "A black flower... That is an interesting symbol. Oh, and speaking of symbols... Did you like my gift, Nagi?"

"Gift?" Hana asked. Now that she had mentioned it, her purple-haired friend had her hands in a rather strange position, almost as if they were holding something.

"Oh, sorry." Nagi glanced back at her hands and a puff of dark grey smoke covered everyone's sight for a moment. When it settled, a long metal staff with the shape of a bat on its tip showed up in her grip. "It looks amazing... I don't think I deserve something so nice."

"Are you kidding? It's like it's made for you." Hana complimented, receiving a small, timid smile in return. "Are we all getting shiny new toys, Lal?"

"Just the ones who need it." She replied. "Haru's equipment has arrived as well, and I'll give it to her when she returns. For now, just keep focusing on your own training. Once you're used to your abilities, we'll start some teamwork dynamics."

"Should we help them get the animals?" Nagi asked.

"Nah..." Lal Mirch denied. "Let the boys have some of the fun, for a change."

\- A few days later -

The mountain of death, an infamous wilderness located just a few hour from Namimori, known in the region for its endless dangers and a great extension of uncharted territory. It was a bitter cold winter day, but that technicality didn't stop the ruthless Lal Mirch from reuniting the entirety of the Black Veil near the mountain range's base to prepare for a training session like none other they had so far. Despite the weather, all of the members were motivated after their latest success and showed up early, leaving them waiting for their instuctor.

"Lal Mirch's equipment thingies are _amazing!_ " Haru was telling Kyoko. Her equipment was hidden somewhere inside her large traveller's backpack. "You have no idea what they can do. I can't wait to show off mine!"

"I've got to go with Haru on this one." Hana agreed.

"I don't want to seem greedy, but I hope she has a little something for me too." Sasagawa confessed. "I'd be very happy to have some assurance on my own when Lal isn't near to shoot me with the Dying Will bullet."

"Good to see you all here." Lal Mirch's voice and presence was easy to recognize, but there was a second person beside her, one they had never seen before. "Before I brief you on our mission today, I'd like to introduce you all the last member of the Black Veil."

"Hello there, everyone!" The very young girl in black sports clothes introduced herself with a warm smile. "My name is Uni."

\- Chapter end -


	6. Chapter 6

\- Black Veil Chronicles -

\- Daily Life Arc -

Chapter 6: Scheming and traps in the Death Mountain!

"Um, hi Uni. Where are you from?"

The one greeting was Kyoko, feeling encouraged by that large smile of the team's newest member. _She's a little late to our group compared to the rest, though... I wonder what's with that?_ The rest of the Black Veil seemed to share similar thoughts, but since it was none other than Lal Mirch presenting her they seemed resigned with the decision. The Baby instructor herself had a very neutral expression, almost as if she was judging her pupils' reaction to it. Seeming satisfyed with the greeting, Uni replied:

"I'm from Italy, actually. I was sent here to represent the Giglio Nero family. I hope we can get along well!" She added with a vigorous bow.

"How do you even know about us?" Questioned Hana raising her eyebrows.

"The Giglio Nero family has quite some strong ties with Vongola's CEDEF, also known as the external advisor unit." Lal Mirch explained. "Since The Black Veil is technically a divison of CEDEF, a select few of their family know our secret. They are required to do an oath first, so our secret should be safe."

"It's a honour to join you, really!" Uni added. "I hope I can be useful."

"She is so young, though..." Haru commented. "Is she some kind if child prodigy, like I-pin?"

"Actually, yes." The baby confirmed. "Uni is among the youngest hitman ever known to master the dying will mode, as you'll see very soon. Since she only got here a little late, I thought setting up a nice little training mission would help break the ice among you." She pointed towards the Death mountain, beginning the brefing: "As some of you may know, Reborn decided to take Tsuna to this mountain's forests to do some training exercises of his own. I was doing some scouting on the area last night in search of threats, and I ended up finding something that almost counts as one."

"I have a question." Haru raised her hand. "Do you actually sleep?"

"Once or twice a week." Lal confirmed. "Going on, apparently Namimori's Karate club never really got over their defeat from Tsuna and Ryohei Sasagawa from last week. Being the indecent little criminals they are, they followed the Decimo to the mountain and are currently plotting their revenge as we speak." The last statement scared some of the Black Veil's members, but the baby instructor merely dismissed it with hand wave. "Knowing Reborn and his student, I have no reasons to believe that they pose the slightest danger to their health. But for the purproses of this training, we will be treating them as one." A rather anxious pause was taken, as if something was missing. "What is it?"

"Um..." Nagi risked saying. "It's just that this is usually the part where you tell us about your plan."

"Oh, right." Lal added. "I forgot to tell you all the best part. This time, I won't be moving a muscle to help you. Kyoko is your leader, so ask _her_ about the plan."

" _What?_ " Kyoko went pale faster than you could say 'no-good-Tsuna' with the perspective of having to come up with a plan. "You can't actually be serious!"

"Oh, I am very much serious." The baby instructor added, already heading towards the vegetation to disappear from sight. "I'll be watching your performance, so don't you dare slack off. Other than that, good luck."

"Wait, Lal!" Sasagawa tried to insist while extending her hand to the direction where Lal disappeared, but it was clearly already too late. "...I don't like where this is going."

"What did I tell you about getting too worked up over this, Kyoko?" Hana asked, hands at her hips. "Let's focus on finding these troublemakers first, then we'll think about a way of stopping them. Is that alright for everyone?" Unsurprisingly, she didn't even glance at Uni to see her opinion.

"We make teams." I-Pin suggested. "We can find them faster."

"Hey, look what's here..." Bianchi approached the bush from whence Lal Mirch disappeared and found the blue 10-year basooka from before. "Looks like the baby left a gift for us. I'll tag with I-Pin, then. We'll search for the mountain's top."

"I wanna go with Nagi!" Haru exlaimed. Nagi agreed with a silent nod. "We'll look near the base."

"So that leaves the three of us to search for the middle section." Hana noticed.

"Is that ok with you, Uni?" Kyoko gently asked.

"Anything that goes for you, Boss!" Uni agreed. "Should we get going, then? I'm sure miss Lal wouldn't want us to be late for the party."

"Alright then. We'll meet back here in a hour at max to tell everyone what we found." The Black Veil's leader confirmed. "Take care, everyone. Above everything, I want to see every one of you safe at home tonight."

As the mountain neared its top, the winds became even more brutal and cold, the trees became sparse and started to be slowly replaced by naked rock in brutal, sharp edges. Steep cliffs crossed by unstable rope bridges and caves also became a much more common sight, making travelling much more difficult on that section. The two Black Veil Members sent to that direction were feeling such dificulties, but being seasoned fighters they had little trouble in overcoming that.

"...And that's why we brought you here." Bianchi had just finished explaining future I-Pin everything she had lost.

"You shouldn't need me for a such a simple assignment, if you ask me. My younger self could probably wipe the floor with them." She looked deep into her friend's eyes and asked: "Why did you _really_ bring me here, Bianchi?"

"Look, I know I'm not supposed to, but..." Bianchi argued. "Is that girl Uni to be trusted?Getting someone from another family in the Black Veil smells like trouble to be, specially someone carrying the Pacifyer Curse." I-Pin's eyes lost their shine for a moment as she remembered her own past. Her response was cold and rehearsed:

"I'm sorry, Bianchi, but telling you about that could end up messing up the future. I'm not even sure if my past is the one you'll experience, so there's no use talking about it."

"As you wish." Despite that excellent attempt at sounding neutral, that was more than enough for the Poison Cook to confirm her suspects. _At the very least, I can be sure something bad is coming to our future. I better keep an eye out for it._ Her keen eye didn't long before it found something interesting: "Hey, did you see that shine, I-Pin?"

"I did. Let's take a look." As the came in closer, a very familiar voice singed:

"What's your name? My name is Lam-Bo..."

The base of the moutain was mostly indistiguishable from the other florests that neared Namimori, but that was just one of the mountain's many traps; in that seemingly peaceful forrest, there laid all types of dangers, from wild animals to gangs of bandits. Having been told about that before going there, Nagi was tense and fearful, searching left and right for any threat to appear. Haru herself was too smart to let herself fall for such primal fears, instead calmly looking around for something interesting, saving her energy for the moment she found one such thing.

"How can you be so calm, Ms. Miura?" Nagi asked in an attempt to talk her stress out. "The Karate club could be right up ahead and we're on our own!"

"A midori sudent doesn't feel fear, even in the direst of situations." Haru explained, clenching her fist to show her determination. "My parents expect great things from me, as well as the whole Mafia world since I'll be the Decimo's wife."

"It seems like a lot of pressure."

"...It is." She agreed, in a surprinsingly tired tone. Much to Nagi's surprise, her friend showed a much saner, insecure expression for a moment before continuing with a smirk: "But that's how I roll. You can't get a diamond without some pressure, am I right or am I right?"

"I guess..." Nagi confirmed. "I'm not sure. Besides Lal, people don't really expect much from me."

"Well then, how about we fix that?" Haru asked, confusing her friend. Lack of a response was enough confirmation for Miura. "Great! I'll be expecting only great things from you from now on, Nagi."

"Uh, really? Just like that?"

"Just like that." She confirmed with a friendly smirk. "Now, to work, you slacker! We need to find these guys ASAP!"

"O-Ok!" Nagi replied. They took a few more seconds of searching before the first clue gave in. "Are you hearing this?"

"Yes..." Haru confirmed while the two carefully headed towards the noise's source. "It's a strange sound. Almost like... Something being rolled..."

Stuck somewhere between the landscape of the mountain's top and its base, the middle section provided a very unique setting that Reborn chose to train his student on. Tsuna's training had led him to a small plateau surrounded by steep slopes on both sides, wherein he ran for his life from his teacher's gun shots. Deciding not to push out their luck and warn Reborn of their presence, the three Black Veil members took a high route a few hundred meters from the training point where they could circle around the two without straying too far from them. The first few minutes in their travel were horribly silent, so Kyoko attempted some conversation:

"So, Uni, how is the Giglio Nero like? Do you like there?"

"It's my home." Uni explained. "My mom is the family's Boss, and everyone there treats her like she's their mother, as well. So, in a way, you could say I have a lot of brothers and sisters."

"And they just let you go like this?" Hana questioned. "This isn't something you can do for a week and then come back, you know."

"A true family can go miles away from you and still feel like they're there for you." The newest Black Veil member explained. "I hope we can become something like that in the future."

"That's amazing..." Kyoko complimented. "But you're just making me even sadder to see you away from your family. We'll try our best to make you feel at home, right Hana?" A light cue with the elbow prompted Hana to speak:

"Yes, for sure. Don't worry, everyone over here is a nice person. I am Hana Kisaragi, by the way. If you're half as nice as your words, we should get along fine." Despite the distrust in her words, Uni replied with a happy, innoccent nod. "Wait, are you hearing something?"

The group stopped for a moment and turned their attention to their surroundings, quickly catching up to a conversation. A few more steps forward revealed a small plateau that perched off over a long slope, the latter quickly disappearing from their view amongst the trees. Sitting near the edge were non other than Daigoro Ooyama, the Karate club leader's older brother, and three of his menacing-looking friends. From their worried expressions looking down to the little dirt trail that brought them here, it was clear that they were awaiting more company.

"Hey boss, aren't your little brother late?" Asked one of the thugs. "If he takes too long to get here, the kid might escape..."

"He's almost here." He replied. "Or do you think it is easy to roll a giant boulder up this hill?"

"Oh my god!" Kyoko whispered. "This could really hurt Tsuna if we don't stop them."

"Cheating bastards..." Hana commented. "These guys are a disgrace to our school, really."

"We should get back." Uni suggested. "The sooner we regroup, the faster we'll be able to come up with a plan." Upon noticing her new friends staring back in awe, she asked: "What? I did this sort of thing before."

"She's right." Sasagawa agreed. "Let's get back."

"So that's the situation." The Black Veil manage to reunite in mere 30 minutes instead of the expected hour since they found interesting information in record time. They were now sitting in a circle around a map crudely drawn on the dirt, while Kyoko did her best to sound like a leader. "We've got four threats atop the cliff marking the rock's drop spot and five others bringing the boulder through the trail over here. Apparently, after we solve the situation there is a natural cave near the top where Lal left some supplies for us, so that we can take a shower and have some food before heading back home. Lambo is there as well, for whatever reason."

"Haru thinks that we shouldn't just stop them." Haru suggested. "We should make sure they never try to mess with our boys again!"

"And how do you suppose we do that?" Bianchi's eyes shone bright with the possibilities in her mind.

"I'm counting on someone." Miura stated simply, glancing at Nagi.

"Taking care of these thugs should be easy." Hana conlcuded. "What we need to come up with is a way to handle the rock if things do get messy."

"I think I have a plan for that." Kyoko said, immedeately attracting everyone's attention. "So, look, I'm not an expert or anything, but I that if we split ourselves like this over here and there..."

"...Are you sure they're coming?" Again atop the plateau, the same thug insisted on Daigoro, which was quickly draining his patience. He shouted back:

"I told you he's almost here! God damn it, would you just shut it for a..." His expression changed drastically when something caught his eye. "Dude, there's a spider in your shoulder."

"Huh?" The man panicked for a split second before slapping the little spider away from his shoulder. Unaware that there were now two of them in the back of his hand, he happily sighted. "Whew. Thanks, boss. You know how afraid of spiders I am." He noticed his three friends were looking back at him, but there was something else that made him worry more: "Guys... They're on you too!"

The four thugs quickly fell into desperation as spiders started showing up at the most unlikely places, such as their elbows, necks and tights. Every single move they made only seemed to spawn more of the little black devils, which began to spurt from the very ground they stood like ants from an anthill someone stepped on. They quickly overwhelmed their feet and started climbing upwards in every possible way. Daigoro couldn't help but scream like a little girl when he noticed a lump showed up in his tight just under the skin and began climbing upwards, going on trough his abdommen and chest towards the head. When their minds had already been broken in terror by the plague, a single figure walked up to them. It was a purple-haired girl, wearing a dress that seemed more like a living spider and wielding a staff with a black widow on its top. She opened her mouth and forth came an ominous, terrifying voice shouting:

"Leave! If you ever try to hurt Tsuna and his family again, I will have no mercy on your soul!"

" _Run!"_ Was all that Daigoro could shout. " _Run for your lives!"_

Nagi watched as the thugs fleed at their top speed, with a decent chance of having been scarred for the rest of their lives. _Did they fall for it?_ Outsude the illusion, she was still wearing regular winter clothes and her staff still had the bat on it, but there was no denying that being able to change her appearance was somewhat neat. _I should go see if any of my teammates need help... No, wait. they're not my teammates. They're my friends._

"Is that... Your brother?" Asked one of the Karate club's members to his leader, Ushio Ooyama. The four club members were pushing a truly humonguous boulder while he walked beside them, handing out orders and directions. Their reception could be seen running as fast as they could from the plateau and away from them, but nothing seemed to be actually chasing after the group.

"It is." He replied. "Hey, brother! Where are you going? We haven't finished yet!" No answer came.

"I knew it was a bad idea to come here!" Warned another member of the club whilist pushing the boulder. "This is the death mountain, after all! There are all sorts of dangers here."

"They're all legends." The club leader hissed back. "Do you really believe that bandits would live here? They even talk about lions and bears... It's absurd, really." He noticed that all his colleagues had suddenly stopped pushing the boulder and now stared at him. "What is it?"

 _"B-B-Bear!"_

Ushiro just barely managed to dodge a deadly claw swinging at him, rolling on the ground to to get some space. It was an absolutely massive grizzly, standing on its hind legs to almost 7 feet of pure muscle. Unable to face such a beast roaring at their face, the Karate club dropped the boulder and ran towards the forrest. Their leader stood still for a moment, paralyzed in pure fear, but another loud roar to his face woke him up and let him run after them. Cruising hurredly through the forrest, they didn't notice the trail of purple slippery goo on their way, slipping over it and falling face flat on the earth.

"Hey there, boys." A sweet voice greeted them. The young men were in awe of Bianchi's beauty, but they couldn't reach her through what could only be described as a two feet-tall circle barricade of poisonous soufflé. One of them tried to reach it with his hands, but backed away instantly when the tip of his nail started to dissolve. The terror in their eyes seemed to amuse the Poison Cook. "Just so you know, this is what you get when you try to scheme against our little Tsuna. Now tell me, will we ever see you again?"

"No, no, I promise!" Ushiro pleaded. "Just please, let us go!"

"Fine, then." Bianchi agreed. "I-Pin, take them home." The men turned their heads back, noticing a chinese girl making interesting poses with her hands. When they were certain nothing big was happening, she shouted:

"Gyoza Hissatsu: Assuku Gyoza! (Secret Gyoza techine: Compressed Gyoza!)" A small ball of brown gas qucikly took shape in her hands, taking the approximate form of a dumpling. She covered it with both hands and thrusted the gas forward, shouting! "Hyaaah!" And the Karate club was launched into the sky, never to be seen again. "Well, that was easy."

"Our part was never a big deal, really." Bianchi commented. "It's the boudler that should be the real challenge."

A few dozen meters downhill, the rest of the Black Veil hid behind a bush and patiently awaited for their turn to act. At that particular point the trail took a sharp turn and the slope became even steeper, disappearing into a heavily florested area. Hana was nervously grabbing her bracelet with the hand that wasn't wearing it and Uni was busy at her cellphone, sending messages as if this was just a stroll by the park. Kyoko herself felt a little displaced in the whole group, being unable to help the team with anything other than mere emotional support. Something got into her mind at the moment:

"Hang on a second. Uni, aren't you a dying will user? Don't you need someone to shoot you?"

"Hah, don't be silly." Uni replied, folding the cellphone and placing it into the bag just beside her. Her hand returned from the backpack with a small blue pill, which she held between her two fingers like an expensive jewel. "This right here is all I need." The Giglio Nero member stopped interacting for a second, her attention and gaze fazing out from this world, and she returned saying: "It's coming... Get ready!" Before Kyoko could even question how was she so sure, the boulder finally made its appearance.

"It's huge!" The Black veil's leader shouted. "Hana, be careful..."

"Huh. Nothing I haven't trained for." Was her response.

Without a moment of hesitation, Hana jumped out of their hideout and charged directly towards the boulder with the assurance of a true hitman. She raised her right hand to line up with her shoulder, activating some kind of mechanism inside it. The blue lines in its interior began to shine, a blue light that quickly grew stronger and stronger until her wielder was nothing but a silhouette. When the light show finally faded, Kisaragi stood intact at her landing zone. The boulder was gone, replaced by several much smaller rocks still heading for the cliff. _They're still big enough to hurt someone bad..._

"My turn!"

After annoucing her entrance, Uni swallowed the blue pill and took an already unnaturaly high and acrobatic jump, spinning in the air until her back was turned to the ground. It was at that moment when a bright orange flame spurted out of her forehead, her eyes became sharper and a burst of flames streamed form their hand, turning the Giglio Nero representant into a human rocket. She flew in a graceful and agile way, allowing her to zip back and forth among the rocks and push them to the side, where they harmlessly stopped hitting the trees nearby. _She's... Amazing! How can she even do these things?_

"Impressed?" Lal Mirch was still very sharp on her ability to show up from nowhere, but Kyoko already half-expected it. "That's the power of the flame. All of you have one, so with hard training and determination you'll be able to do just like her, even better. Actually, let's hope you're a little better at it..."

Kyoko turned her sight back to the trail, where only a few of the rocks remained. Uni was quite a few uphill from them, however, so she was forced to increase the flame flux to reach her target: the left hand responded correctly, but the other one didn't. Unbalanced and at a dangerously fast speed, she crashed through her targets and fell rolling into the ground, just a few meters in front of the deadly falling stones. The flame on her forehead had disappeared and she obviously wouldn't be able to pull herself out of the way in time.

"Shoot me, Lal!" Kyoko begged. "Shoot me now! I have to save her!"

"Sorry, I'm all out of bullets." Lal mentioned. She rummaged for something in the bush behind her and delievered it to the Black Veil's leader. "Here, use this. You'll know what to do."

Sasagawa now held in her hands a very unique equipment. It was akin to a mace, with a long and thin handle that fit very well into her hand, but its end had a weight on the shape of a perfect, tridimensional snowflake whose surface reflected white light like a crystal. The space bewteen the handle and the mirrors where intricatenly carved in the shape of snowflakes, whilist the end of the pommel had a bride's veil sculpted into it. _Is this... My weapon?_ Kyoko had a thousand questions to her instructor, but there was no time. _I'll know what to do..._ Trying not to overthink it, she jumped out of her hideout and put herself between Uni and the projectile heading out for her.

The weapon was swung like a bat and the rock was no more.

"What?" For the first time in several years, the baby instructor was actually astonished. Not at her skill or strenght, but something else: "It's _wand,_ you idiot! Use your flame in it!"

"Huh?" The Black Veil's leader rose an eyebrow, confused. More rocks followed after, the perfect chance to correct her mistake. "Alright, I'll try it!"

Kyoko focused on the snowflake part of her weapon and its shine. _It's not reflecting light... It's my own determination!_ Upon focusing on her wish to protect Uni, impress Lal and grow into someone worthy of leading the Black Veil, the flame in her weapon grew larger and brighter. The weapon was swung too early to hit its target, but concentration of flames detached from it, becoming a white ball of destruction that hit the rock directly. An explosion of flames bursted from it, large enough to pulverize the rest of the stones and knock Sasagawa off her feet. _The cliff... It's just behind me!_ Her feet searched under her blindly in hope for land, but at first they found nothing. She was already certain of her death when solid ground finally touched her back.

 _I... Wasn't so near the edge as I thought, I guess._ When Kyoko finally had the courage to look down, however, all her expectations were blown off like a ripe dandelion. She wasn't sitting on the ground, as the cliff was actually a little over a foot in front of her, but on ice. A snowflake-shaped ice. It floated in thin air, but was still as solid and immobile as any soil. _This weapon is actually magic... How can it be?_ Afraid of having the magic disappear without a warning, Sasagawa got up and jumped back into solid ground. The entirety of the Black Veil awaited there, in awe of her new power.

"...What is it?" Kyoko asked with a light blush. "You're talking like you didn't just do a great job yourselves."

It was at that point were Uni leap-hugged Kyoko, nearly knocking the two out of the cliff again.

About one hour later on that same day, the Black Veil and Lambo were happily celebrating the results of their work after a well-deserved bath and change of clothes. Their instructor also had the unusual kindness of bringing some take-out food for them, which was heated over again the best they could on a fire inside the cave. Uni was the most wounded in the group, but it still was nothing that a few bandages and a short nap couldn't solve, and I-Pin had been brought back from the future and was told of the recent events. After having played a little with Haru, the dumb cow was too tired and fell asleep on the spot so for once, everyone could finally sit down and have a talk insteand of frantically training like they were used to.

"You were soooo cool!" Haru exclaimed between two spoonfuls of soup. "Hana was like 'slash!', then Uni went 'swoosh' and Kyoko jumped in front of danger and 'smash!'"

"Sometimes I forget she's in the most prestigious school of Namimori..." Hana confessed to Kyoko.

"Yeah, but I failed..." Uni replied Hana. "If it weren't for your leader, Tsuna and I would have gotten hurt badly. I'm sorry."

"I saw you, out there." Nagi said. "I was a little far, but I saw you were doing your very best out there. I-I don't think you should be sorry for that."

"You're a nice person for worrying about it, though." Hana noticed. "I'm glad we have you with us."

"B-But, but..." Uni stuttered, tears piling up rapidly on her eyes until she felt a hand over her shoulder. It was Kyoko who silenced her worries, with naught but a smile. "Thanks, everyone."

"You're welcome." Haru replied in a mockingly smug tone. She cut the act with a happy smirk: "We've got you covered, little girl. Don't worry."

"Wait, did you actually help?" Kyoko asked. "How?"

"You didn't see me?" Miura asked back. "I was using my equipment..."

While the Black Veil ate and showed off their equipment and what they could do, Lal Mirch was back at work again. She took avantage of the team's distraction to search through the newcomer's backpack, driven by nothing but a wild hunch. _If I'm right, though, it'll make things much easier..._ She found the device and headed directly to the recent messages. Just as expected, there were nothing but very disturbing death threats, a more than reasonable explanation for her fluke from earlier. After making sure no one had saw it, the Arcobaleno returned it to the bag and approached her students, annoucing:

"Sorry kids, but play time is over for now. Tsuna is approaching this area soon, so I need some volunteers to distract them away from this cave while I take Nagi, Uni and I-Pin back to safety."

"I'll check the cave!" Gokudera's voice could already be heard from the outside. "It is my job as Tsuna's protector."

"I-Pin, wake the dumb cow." Bianchi asked. "Let's give our Vongola boys a warm welcome."

\- End of Daily Life arc -


	7. Chapter 7

\- Black Veil Chronicles -

\- Black Lily's revenge arc -

Chapter 7: Sudden attack!

Namimori and its surroundings certainly had several landmarks worthy of notice and visiting, from an oversized zoo with rare species to a deadly mountain range full of legends and unexplained accidents. To Kyoko, however, none of that was a match to the bakery just a few blocks from her house. They had years of tradition specializing in cake, resulting in some of the finest desserts in the whole region for a pretty reasonable price. This made it the place to go when she felt deserving of a treat, besides being the exact same place when Sasagawa found out her friend Haru had the same passion towards the pastry as herself. Because of all that, it was the ideal place to take Uni along with the whole team; even Bianchi and I-Pin were there, even if they didn't participate that much on the conversations.

Lal had decided to let the team go after noticing their mental exhaustion; not only were they still recovering from the adventures at the death mountain, recent rumors were talking about misterious beatings of namimori Middle's students. Going out at night didn't seem to be safe anymore, and despite her brother's best attempts Kyoko found out about Ryohei being one of the targeted students. She pretended in front of her colleagues and family to know nothing about that, but at least in the Black Veil's company she could drop the act for a moment.

"I mean, what's the point of doing all this if we can't stop this from happening?" Kyoko asked. Even the sweet flavor of her velvet cake didn't seem to be helping much.

"We'll get them back for that, I promise." Hana's hand grabbed her upset friend's shoulder lightly, which at least seemed to work better than the sweets. "He might have the mindset of a 5-year-old, but your brother is a tough guy. He'll be fine."

"I'm pretty sure Lal is coming up with a plan to stop them right now." Haru said. "I mean, why else would she give us some free time like this?"

"I guess you're right." Kyoko agreed. She quickly noticed Uni was feeling awfully out of place in whole group, not knowing anything to say about her brother or to encourage her new friend. _Looks like I don't have the time to be worried right now,_ the Black Veil leader concluded. She put on a smile and forced herself to forget about it: "Hey, Uni." Her eyes shifted from her white cake to Sasagawa. "If you don't mind, we wanted to show you the town after we're done here."

"Are you sure it's alright? Despite everything that's happening?" Uni asked. Everyone else agreed with a calm smirk.

"We don't get a chance to go out like this very often." Kyoko explained. "We shouldn't let stuff we can't do anything about get in the way of showing you out Namimori. Where do you want to go to first?"

"Well, the zoo sems nice..." The newcommer confessed.

"Yeah, let's go to the zoo." Hana agreed. "I think we deserve to give the place a decent visit after saving it."

"You saved it?" Uni asked. "From what?"

"We did!" Was Haru's reply. Everyone finished their cakes and headed for the exit whilist trying to hear the narration. "Don't worry, Haru's going to tell you everything from the beggining..."

From that point on anything would go for Uni, except having to end the day. They went to the zoo while commenting everything that happened there, took a quick tour around the Namimori middle, strolled besides the river and finally sat down near the namimori shrine to take a breather and enjoy the little bit of free daytime they had left. The temple already had a very calm and exquisite feel at day, but it was at night when it really shone, when the sky was overtaken with a sea of stars. Taking some time off one's day to watch the sun setting over there was a habit that, in Kyoko's opinion, everyone should be doing more often, and something that was made even more special when done with friends.

"And that's when Kyoko hurled the fish back into the air, saving me from it!" Haru had just finished explaining. "That was the best day, really; that's when we found out this Black Veil thing had a future."

"Come on, Uni." Bianchi encouraged. "Now it's your turn. You must have some story to share about your little adventures with your family, right?"

"Yes!" I-Pin seemed thrilled with the idea. "Uni very strong! You must have nice friends."

"Oh, I..." Uni mumbled, gazing her eyes away. "I don't think I have any cool stories like you do."

"Well then, let's make some of our own." Kyoko suggested. "I mean, besides _this._ "

"I don't know, Kyoko..." Hana commented. "This still sounds better to me than whatever Lal cooks up for us to do."

"It _is_ a very big deal, though." Uni interrupted. "To protect the Vongola... That's a honor many can only dream about. I still can barely believe Lal let me join you."

"Hey, c'mon, maybe you're taking this a little bit too far." Haru dismissed. "I mean, we had some fun times and we save Tsuna-kun every now and then, but that's nothing like the Mafia's real dangers, right?" But with Uni's and Bianchi's dead serious expression, the Midori student quickly realized that it was no exaggeration.

"Well, I guess it's time for me to go." The poison cook interrupted, breaking the tension with a lazy stretch. "You take care when going home, ok? The streets have been very dangerous lately."

"I think we can handle ourselves." Haru confirmed, slapping her arm with the other hand to show confidence. "But yeah, it _is_ getting quite late. Should we go home?"

"Thanks again, friends." Uni said. "You've been too nice to me, really."

"That's what friends do, Uni." Kyoko insisted. "Don't worry too much about it, ok?"

"Ok."

The Black Veil bid farewell to one another and scattered, each going back to their houses before it became completely dark. Lal Mirch arranged Uni a place to stay in a small renting house near the cake store, leaving her to do the last few blocks of the path on her own, which she postponed as much as possible by moving slowly and taking detours whenever possible. She wasn't afraid of finding any strangers on her way; rather, it was meeting old friends that scared her the most. No amount of wishful thinking, however, was enough to stop her from being cut off by a tall figure hidden by the evening's darkness. He spoke in a soft, but unsettled voice:

"Uni. You seem to be getting along well with them."

"They don't suspect a thing, I swear." Was Uni's response.

"Well, it doesn't matter by now. The boss is weary that the fake Arcobaleno will suspect and take some action, so you have to do it tonight." The man's hand rummaged for something inside his clothes and came out with a generations-old Qatar sculpted with beautiful engravings that had the Vongola family crest on the guard. He extended the weapon to the Black Veil's newest member and added: "Take care of this. It's the real thing."

"T-Tonight?" Uni questioned, her hand hovering hesistantly over the weapon. The man gave a decisive nod and she took the weapon from him. "Alright. Anything the boss wishes."

"Good girl. We'll be here tomorrow morning to rescue you, so hang on or hide until then." Upon noticing her hesitation, the man took her hand and brought it up towards his chest to hold it with both hands, adding: "Hey. You can do it, don't worry. And the world will be a better place."

"O-Ok."

Hiding the Qatar as best as she could in her clothes, Uni turned back and ran briskly towards her objective. She had only been there once, just before hitting the bakery with her newest 'friends', but still remembered the way easily. The front window was closed, but all it took was a touch from her orange flames to turn the wood and glass into brittle stone, which she could easily remove without making a sound. A short leap got her inside the house and already on the right room. Just beside her, already well into sleep, was none other than Kyoko. The very same girl that accepted her after just a glance, took her as one of her closest friends and risked herself to save her from harm on the very same day they met. A threat, according to her Boss. One that had to be eliminated.

Uni held the Qatar near her face, feeding it some of her flames. The energy concentrated around the blade, forming an orange aura that soflty flickered around it, the telltale sign of a begginer's flame. It didn't matter much, since the weapon in her hands had more than enough power and history on its own. A single touch from it, and not even the Black Veil's leader could survive. _Just a stab... And its over._ It wasn't like the Giglio Nero representant would ever meet them again after that; to be completely honest, she didn't even belong to that point in time. Soon, all of that would be just a fragment of a long lost past that never mattered. _Then why am I trembling?_ The steel neared Kyoko, but her hands refused to finish the action.

"I-I can't..." A tear showed up on Uni's eye, slowly rolling down her face in the dark. _We barely know each other, Kyoko, but I already feel like it's been forever. This is wrong, no matter how she puts it._ "T-thank you, Kyoko. You've been my only real friend in the longest time."

"Hmmm?" Kyoko mumbled, adjusting her position in bed.

Scared by the sudden movement, the girl with the Qatar jumped over the window back into the streets and left. _I can't... I won't do it. And I'll face the consequences of that. Alone._

Kyoko's night had been a very pleasant one, with a particularly interesting dream where Uni baked her some 'thank you' cupcakes which unfortunately were set on fire by something before they had the chance to eat them, earning them some healthy laughs in the process. That only managed to make her all the more resistant to the hands shaking her, trying to get her up. After a few mumbles the Black Veil's leader finally opened her eyes and noticed something was very, very wrong. Hana, Haru and Nagi were there, all of them displaying different levels of anxiety.

"Oh, good, you're up." Hana was the one shaking her, despite being the calmest one. "Lal left with I-Pin and Bianchi and told us to wake you up." She took a moment for her friend to take in the information before adding: "She said that Tsuna and his family are in danger and we have to help."

"Lal left?" Kyoko asked, still confused. "What could she possibly be doing right now?"

"She mentioned something about covering us up." Haru explained. "And that we shouldn't hope for any help from her, I-pin or Bianchi anytime soon."

"You should get dressed." Hana suggested. "We'll explain everything on our way there."

After her friends left the house to wait for her, Kyoko put on the first clothes availible in her locker and picked up her Vongola equipment, which was hidden under her bed. _My brother already got hurt because we took too long... I can't let the same happen to Tsuna._ The Black Veil's leader hesistated before leaving, as she found a small pile of stones near her window. _Someon broke in here? But there's nothing missing..._ With a bad feeling growing on her rapidly, she left her room to meet her friends and took the lead of her team.

"Wait, where are you going?" Haru asked.

"To Uni's place, of course." Kyoko said. It took only a good glance back at them to realize what was the reason behind their worries. Nagi confirmed her fears:

"Uni's missing. Lal thinks that they took her. The people that are after Tsuna."

"So that's what's going on!" Sasagawa said. "Let's hurry, then! We can't let them hurt her." _Whoever 'they' may be._ On their way towards the edge of Namimori, Hana began explaining the situation:

"Earlier this morning, Tsuna received orders from the 9th Vongola Boss to hunt down escaped criminals. Lal is confident he can do it, but a 3rd party seems to have heard about it as well and wants to do a surprise attack on his family. She sent us to intercept these people and, if possible, get some information on Uni's whereabouts. Apparently, the ones we're babysitting are at the Kokuyo land, so we're heading there."

"Let's be careful on our approach." Kyoko suggested. "If we find them before they find us, maybe we can find a way to solve this without any violence. How are your illusions going, Nagi?"

"I-I'm trying my best." Nagi replied. "I think I can change what they're seeing or hearing if there's no illusionist there..."

 _Stay strong, Uni,_ Kyoko pleaded. _We'll get you back soon._

Not far from there, Uni sat on the top of a large rock near the outskirts of Kokuyo. The rock loomed over a large cemetery of rich families, which protected the remains of their loved ones in magnificent stone mausoleums spaced over by large grass patches filled with white lillies. Her family, the Giglio Nero, was also symbolized by a lilly. Sacrifices were an important part in this family, almost a tradition and a speciality that carried over for generations; the strenght of will to give up whatever mattered the most for you for the sake of a better world. _They told me I was doing a noble sacrifice by being here... But now, I'm not so sure._

Uni's hands were tied by special flame-cancelling handcuffs, for she was a prisoner now. The one keeping her from escaping was the same man to whom she was speaking the night before, a tall, blonde man in a sharp black suit that wielded the kindest of eyes. The same man that she thought would never betray her, but 10 years younger than what she was used to. He looked down on her, as one would look upon a lost child who stole food to live. _Gamma was a different men back then... Or should I say, right now._ Gamma said:

"Do you want to talk about it now, Uni? The reason why you couldn't do it."

"Why are you talking to me like a friend? I'm not in the family anymore. I'm just a prisoner you're watching over before your Boss punishes me."

"As far as I'm concerned, you're still in my family." Was his explanation. "And Aria is still your mother. She's just giving you a slap on the wrist. After we're done with these terrorists, we'll go back home and everything will be back to normal... If you just explain what happened." It was too hard for Uni to argue with those eyes, with that soft, parental voice. Still, her answer was:

"I'm not feeling like talking about it right now." The truth was, her mother's words had blinded the whole family, and that was an illusion too strong for her to break with just her opinion on the matter; specially since she herself had been taken by it as well.

"As you wish." Gamma replied. He looked down from the rock into the cemetery's soil, noticing the rest of his family showing up in the meeting point. "Nozaru, Tozaru, you come along with me; we'll grab their attention to set them up." He got up and grabbed Uni by the waist, holding her over his arm. He whispered. "Does it hurt if I hold you like this?"

"Only my pride." She confessed.

"I hope you notice some day I'm doing this for your own good. Wether you like it or not, your mother _always_ knows best."

Kokuyo used to be a city even more prosperous and populated than Namimori, but a rise in criminal activity supposedly related to mob wars escaped the city's control, resulting in many areas of the town being abandoned. Kokuyo land was one such place, as well as the commercial neighbourhood the Black Veil happened to be walking through. The streets were populated mostly by long streaks of small stores, with their windows broken and internal furniture stolen, with a few office buildings in an even worse state in between. The group traveled near the cars, alert for any sign of the invaders, but it almost seemed like an useless try. Being silent as it was, a single noise in that street was enough to call for everyone's attention:

"I think it came from there." Whispered Kyoko, pointing towards the remains of a large department store near Nagi. Haru was the first to react:

"I'll go see what it is!"

Her loud voice and sudden run was just about loud enough to blow any cover, but that was nothing but a lost cause; before anyone could stop Miura from recklessly diving into danger, a large explosion took over a building just beside the store. A car-sized piece of debris detached from the last floor and fell directly towards the Black Veil with a precision that couldn't be the result of luck. Kyoko was barely fast enough to save herself, ducking and jumping towards the street. She had soft bruises on her knees and hands, but her worries were focused on ensuring her team was ok. _Hana seems fine... But where are the other two?_ The impact lifted over a large cloud of dirt, making it impossible to be sure.

"Haru, Nagi, are you ok?" Sasagawa asked while standing back up. Hana stood up as well, already watchful of any other source of danger.

"We're OK!" Haru shouted back. From her side, she could see very little of the street, with the large boulder blocking the store's main exit and all; the windows in the front didn't seem large enough to allow an escape, but they offered enough light to see decently inside the store. Nagi was at her side, nervous, but completely unharmed. "The exit's blocked! We'll try jumping out from the first floor!"

"Oh, no you won't."

Haru and Nagi turned back towards the stairs, where two men in black uniforms wielding large scythes blocked their way. The first one was a huge beast of a man with a huge jaw, darker skin and a respecful blonde beard, while the second one was even younger than Nagi, with pink hair and a very androginous appearance. From the way they looked at the two Black Veil members, they might as well be an extermination team about to take care of a little cockroach infestation. The tallest one said, clearly not the one who taunted before:

"Your reign of terror stops now. Hand out your weapons before this gets ugly for you."

"Hah! You wish." Haru boasted. "I'll get the big one, Nagi."

"Haru! Nagi!" Screamed Kyoko from the other side. "Don't worry, we'll come over to help!"

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that."

The source of the voice was a tall, blonde man in a black suit, just a few feet away from Kyoko and Hana. He was standing atop a car, carrying Uni with one of his arms. She was wide awake, looking over them with a guilty expression. _There's something wrong there... It's like they know each other._ The Black Veil's leader wasn't sure how she was so certain about that with nothing but a glance, but it felt like it was true and, from the look on Hana's face, she wasn't the only one suspecting about it.

"Kyoko, I'm so sorry..." Uni finally said. "I should have told you. I should have _warned_ you."

"Uni, what do you mean?" Kyoko tried asking.

"I guess I haven't introduced myself yet." The man interrupted the two. "I am Gamma, from the Giglio Nero family. We are here to stop you from murdering the Vongolas."

" _What?"_ Even Hana was aghast at the last statement. "Is this some sort of joke? We are here to _save_ them. From you." She added, pointing decisively to Gamma.

"Our Boss warned you'd try to talk your way out of it." Was his response. "It won't work. I am not leaving here before you two are neutralized." A short moment of silence followed his statement, while Kyoko's mind furiosly processed all the incoming information. In response, Gamma carefully let Uni atop the car and leaped down from it, adjusting the sleaves in his hands. "Good, you're done talking. I'll go first."

"Hana, get to Uni." She finally said, tightening her grip around her weapon. "I'll distract him."

Hana answered with a quick nod and ran, trying to use some cars parked along the sidewalk as cover. Kyoko focused on her weapon and, charging it with her willpower, made the weapon glow with a white flame. She swinged one, two, three times with it, hurling small white missles towards Gamma. Not seeming very impressed by the attack, he simply walked forward without the slightest attempt to dodge it. Her flames failed to reach him, exploding in white smoke just a few feet before him after hitting what seemed to be an invisible barrier that let out a green shine when hit. He didn't even faze his eyes when Kisaragi ran past him, allowing her to reach Uni.

"You're betting quite a lot on your ability to hold me down for your plan to work." Gamma noticed. "Are you willing to cope with its risks?" Kyoko's hands gripped even tigher around her weapon. _Where could you be, Lal? I need you right now!_ Trying to stall for time, she replied:

"I don't mind risking myself if it means everyone else gets to be a little safer. Does that sound like a terrorist to you?"

"Looks are nothing to go by in the Mafia world." Was his answer. "Specially when both sides of the battlefield have an illusionist." The Balck Veil's leader couldn't help but feel lost with that statement.

 _What could that even..._ The answer quickly showed up in her sights. _Hana!_

Inside the department store, the two Giglio Nero had had enough of conversations and readied the schythes in their hands, preparing to move forward on their opponents. They stopped immedeately on their tracks, however, when Haru clenched her hands in front of her clothes, threathening to ripp them off. She went on with it before they could even protest, revealing a blue and yellow polka dot jumpsuit underneath. Even though Nagi had seen the suit before, seeing her wearing it was still a bit of a shock for her.

"Behold!" Haru screamed. "The shapeshifter suit! Lal's little gift for me."

"I don't care what its name is." The largest one answered angrily. "We'll cut you down, no matter what!" His courage seemed to fade a bit, however, when thick brown fur started spurting from every inch of Miura's body. She was quickly covered in it and started growing rapidly, reaching almost double her height and several times her width. Before long, a fully sized grizzly was growling menacingly at them.

"Pretty neat, huh?" Her voice could be heard despite the bear keeping his mouth closed. "Who wants a piece of Haru now?"

The large man was the first to act, not one to be startled by the transformation. He brough his scythe back to attack, but was interrupted mid-swing by the grizzly's powerful claws, which held onto the handle. The two pushed all their weight forward and began a brutal dispute of strenght, with the occasional shout to try and display dominance. The kid wasn't sure if his brother could win that fight, so he surpassed his hesitation and charged at the girl turned bear, trying to get her by surprise. He swung his scythe, confident it would hit, but it went though the beasts unimpeded. The image of the two was beginning to fade when the young Giglio Nero member felt a cold bar of steel on his abdommen. When he recovered, he noticed his bro and the bear where fighting several feet away from him, and it was the purple haired girl that hit him.

"An illusionist, huh?" He questioned. "Don't think you're going to have an easy time just because I'm young!"

"I'm sorry, little boy." Nagi's face seemed empathic for a moment, but it was quickly replaced by cold determination. "But I have to break you now."

\- Chapter end -


	8. Chapter 8

\- Black Veil Chronicles -

\- Black Lily's revenge arc -

Chapter 8: The Lilies's secret! What could it be?

"Is everything set up there? Good. Cut the tape."

Lal was sitting atop one of Namimori's streets, communicating with the CEDEF from a safe spot. Near her could be found the experimental blue 10-year-bazooka, still smoking from its recent use. She watched over two eerily looking pale, bald men searching frantically in the streets of Namimori for their targets. They were now passing around a small, circular plaza that had several cars parked around, a few benches and a water fountain in the middle. Little did they know, their connection to the man under their control and the surveillance cameras following them were both long disconnected and replaced by fake substitutes installed there by her orders _. Like the Vongola would leave a vulnerable member exposed like that._

"The prey are in position." The Arcobaleno informed. "Engage at will."

"Understood."

The voice who answered belonged to none other than future I-Pin, who was positioned behind a car just out of her foes at the occasion, the Bloody Twins. A few well-positioned warning signs helped redirect the residents of the town, leaving the small block free for the action. The martial artist attacked exactly at the point when the two were nearest to her and without warning; using both her hands and her compressed Gyoza fist technique, the car was sent flying straight at her foes.

The twins reaction time turned out to be even better than Lal expected, as they simply turned towards the car and swung their sharp claws at it, slicing the vehicle into several parts effortlessly. They didn't hesitate for a second before charging straight at their attacker, nails first. I-Pin did a quick dodge to the right to try and escape them, but when she thought it had been successful light cuts showed up at her shoulder and arm, slicing the end of one of her braids. The Black Veil's member took a step back, rethinking her strategy.

"Should I send help?" Asked Lal through the communication. "I can't really get involved... My apprentice is going to need me soon."

"No!" I-Pin replied. "I can do it. Go save Kyoko."

"Are you sure?" The Arcobaleno insisted. "If your communicator is compromised, nobody is coming to help until it's too late."

"Just go."

To I-Pin, that fight was more than just a simple distraction _. If I can't beat even these low-lifes on my own, than I'll just be proving he's right..._ She fired another round of compressed gyoza air, causing the twins to split themselves. Even with her harsh training, it was a true challenge to follow the two master assassins simultaneously. A furious set of swipes by one of them forced the Black Veil fighter to somersault her way into a bench near the fountain, where the other foe was waiting for her. Forced to pull an emergency jump, she clumsily hit the fountain and fell near it, taking a moment to surpass the pain and return to her feet, still holding her shoulder. _If I don't get my head out of the past, I'll never win._

It happened 9 years ago.

I-Pin was still a small kid with much left to learn when her master master found out about her secret. He immediately sealed the Pinzu bomb, indicating that he would no longer train her. With martial arts composing her whole life back then she pleaded, cried and made desperate promises in an attempt to change his decision, but he was adamant to it. "You don't have what it takes, I-Pin." Was what he said to her at the occasion. "It is best to end it now than to waste more time at an useless task. She hadn't seen her old master since, and still wondered what he would find if he saw her now. She clenched her fists and prepared herself for another round.

Since the Gyoza ken doesn't seem to be working, I'll have to work on a tougher approach. I-Pin took a more defensive stance for herself and awaited for the first attack. The first bloody twin went for a slash from his nails, but her hand stopped the attack, followed by a swift kick to his chin that lifted him in the air. The other twin was met with her elbow, which was quickly followed after an overhead throw to the ground. Since the young fighter never had another master after the first, her style became a mix of so many different martial arts she might as well be fighting at the UFC. It was a necessary strength to cover for her one glaring weakness.

"You, break me?" The young, pink-haired boy tried his best to show confidence over his opponent, despite her threat having had a deep impact over him. To prove his point he showed the side of his uniform, where the Gligio Nero's 5-point orange star was best shown. "You're fighting Nosaru, from the Giglio Nero! I won't break for anything!"

"Talking doesn't make your mind harder to read." Nagi noticed. "I'm sorry to tell you that, but you're like an open book... I can see all your fears."

"L-lies! You're lying to me!" Before he could react, however, a dense, dark cloud took over, isolating Nosaru from the world and immersing him in an endless, pitch black world. Believing that was the best the apprentice illusionist could do he started slowly walking forward, looking around while calling out: "Hello!? Anyone?"

The young Giglio Nero member quickly regretted his decision when he heard a heart-piercing groan of pain right in front of him. It was Tozaru, the one person he was sure wouldn't get hurt, now laying on the ground over a large pile of blood. He raised his hand, desperately reaching out for Nosaru, but when he tried to reach it back their distance seemed to immediately double, like it would in a nightmare. _No, wait! He thought to himself, closing his eyes for a moment. Don't let her into your head, Nosaru. She knows who's Tozaru, so it must be just a vision..._

When Nosaru opened his eyes again, however, his will broke like glass in a hail. He was now sitting atop a car in the street that he supposedly had just left, with a good look over the whole block. This time his bro wasn't the only one lying in the ground, mortally wounded; every one of the Giglio Nero members chosen for the mission were also there, fatally wounded and staring at him with a pleading look. In the middle of them all was Uni, the 'traitor' he never could condemn, desperately trying to crawl towards him.

"Nosaru..." Uni managed to say. "I thought that you were different... That you'd understand me, that's you'd protect me..." Two harsh coughs interrupted her. "We could have been so much more..." She extended her bloody hand at Nosaru, but before he could touch her, her strength was gone and the hand fell on the ground. The young boy already had tears in his eyes when Nagi finally made her appearance. She was wearing the same spider dress from before, but it seemed different; it was more provocative, had sharper, fiercer edges and darker colors than before.

"I can't believe you had feelings for Uni..." Her voice was similar to her usual, but it had something on it that gave her foe a deep chill on his spine. "I don't have a choice, you see. If I want to break you, I have to break her first."

"No, please..." Nosaru could already barely control his voice as his tears were rapidly descending into sobbing. "Do anything you want to me, but not Uni!"

Nagi hated to admit it, but she concluded her next illusion would be best executed with a grin.

On a place that seemed to be in another universe but was actually set a few meters from where it was occurring, Haru fought for dominance over the huge man and his scythe; they seemed mostly even in strength at the start, which was already pretty surprising considering she had taken the form of a large grizzly bear. The real surprise, however, was when a dark red aura formed over the man and, with unbelievable strength, he tossed his foe back. He took advantage of the good position to swing several times at the bear, making deep slices left and right. He ended his attack with a deadly vertical slice, which split the bear into two parts.

Rather anticlimactically for such a battle, the bear turned out to be nothing but a costume. Haru emerged from the pile of fur that surrounded her, carrying light scratches where the previous cuts had reached the bear before _. It works like some kind of armor she can dispose of... Very interesting._ The man finally said:

"Stop trying, terrorist; your equipment might give you a few tricks, but without flame control you just cannot defeat me. I am Tozaru from the Giglio Nero, after all."

"Flame control?" She asked back, interested by that new term. _Why didn't Lal tell us about this before?_ She hid her doubts under a confident smile. "Doesn't matter. Would it be safe to say that this just now was you fighting at your best?"

"If it makes you feel better, yes." Tozaru agreed, spinning the scythe around him to showcase his abilities. "Can you surrender now?"

"Hah! I thought that you guys were a lot tougher." Haru took a glance at her side and noticed that the man's brother was already starting to break down from the scary effects of Nagi's illusion. "Not that I'm complaining, of course. The faster we wrap this up, the better." As Miura walked towards her opponent, her suit began to expand like an air balloon. When it reached sufficient size it popped, revealing a completely new form. "Get ready, cause I'm going all in!"

Meanwhile, Hana reached Uni without any more problems, but sported herself a cold and unforgiving look. Before the captive could even protest she activated her bracelet: the engravings in it began shining stronger and stronger until everything was cloaked in a flash of light. When it finally settled, the Black Veil member sported a long and guard-less white blade on her right hand. A decisive swing from the weapon broke the magical cuffs without harming the wearer.

"I'm all out of patience, so you better start explaining what's going on." Hana commanded without lowering her blade. "Right. _Now._ "

"I'm sorry, I can't…" Uni answered, jumping back to leave her friend's grasp. "I must stop my mother before anyone else gets hurt. I'll explain everything later, I promise!" If I actually live after this. She used flames to fly away from the rest of the team, shouting: "I'm sorry!"

"Wait, get back here!" Kisaragi tried to run after her friend, but a shady figure presented itself between her and her goal. "You're on the way."

"I am not in the way." Was the man's answer. He was tall, lean and had medium straight black hair. His eyes had a sharp look to them, but his whole expression was colder than a winter's night. He wore a black uniform and carried two broadswords on his belt. "I am here to stop you, and you are not getting out of this alive."

Noticing the man before her wasn't going to make it easy for her, Hana charged immediately at him, sword first. Before she could even process what had happened, however, the Gilgio Nero goon was already blocking the swing with one of his blades without much effort. _He's fast!_ The Black veil member tried a few more advances at the man, but he blocked all of them with careless swings and a still stone-cold expression. When he finally took upon himself to attack, she immediately felt their difference in skill; if it came down to a simples sword duel, she didn't stand a chance. _Good thing this isn't one._ When the man busted her guard open and readied a decisive strike, he was surprised with a flying blade out of nowhere. It was so fast it grazed his torso despite his best efforts to dodge it. And yet, she still had the same sword in her hand.

"I'm sorry to tell you, but I don't fight with a single blade." Hana explained. Beside her arm that pointed at the Giglio Nero Swordsman, a sequence of flashes spawned blades just like the one in her hands, floating in the air. "I'll give you another chance to give up."

Hana's condescending remark only seemed to annoy the man, prompting him to attack instantly. He was met with a hail of blades, forcing him to slow down his charge and making the Black Veil member's job of blocking his attack a simple task. Despite being far from precise or synchronized yet, the projectiles did a fine job at covering her weak spots and forcing a the Giglio Nero swordsman to fall into his more defensive stance _. I've taken enough time with this too_ l, Hana thought. _I better knock him out and check if Kyoko's okay_. The floating blades quickly formed a ring around her foe, lunging in at a quick pace whilst keeping him stranded in a place. Now! Taking advantage of the distraction she took a few steps, leaped forward with the sword ready and…

Hit a wall with her head.

Kyoko wanted to help Hana badly but, little did she know, her danger was much greater. Gamma puller back the left sleeve of his suit, revealing a strange device that was better described as the midway between a roulette wheel and a watch that emitted a green shine. The Giglio Nero member held the roulette on his wrist and gave it a spin. The moment it stopped, a red light emitted an orange light and spheres of the same color showed up floating around him. A quick command with his hand turned the spheres into bolts that flew towards his foe. The Black Veil's leader barely managed to escape the ensuing explosion. _What is that watch? It can do so much…_

"Damn, you got lucky." Gamma said. "Let's see how far does you luck get you."

Working hard to make something out of the little information she had been given, Kyoko used her wand's ability to form platforms to try and gain some height. The man used his roulette once more, getting a yellow color this time. His hands gleamed yellow and he effortlessly grabbed a car to throw it into his opponent. Sasagawa did manage to hit the vehicle with a burst of energy from her Vongola weapon, but it only slowed it down a bit and she had to jump of the platform to avoid getting hit. The asphalt was harsh and merciless, and by the time she had gotten herself back up her foe already was right ahead of her. His right hand began spinning the roulette and formed a gun shape while it was still spinning, pointing it to her heart.

"Say goodbye to this world, terrorist." Gamma said.

Kyoko was absolutely paralyzed in fear _. I can't get out in time! If I had another chance, I might have gotten the hand of his power, but… I just hope my friends can escape before its too late._ The Black Veil's leader simply closed her eyes and hoped for a painless end. But then it all stopped. A gut feeling from deep inside her felt a bullet heading her way, but not the one that was expected. She wasn't sure how, but somehow a whisper got through to her from what seemed almost a mile away:

"C'mon, kid. It's like you haven't learned anything all this time…"

 _It's Lal! And she's right, too! I have to face it head on. If not for me, for my friends and for Tsuna._ By the time the dying will bullet hit Kyoko, she was fully ready to react: her body used the bullet's impact to arch and duck under Gamma's hand, which fired a deadly blue laser just beside her. The place it hit exploded in a blue pillar of energy _. The roulette determines the power of his moves. If that's the case, then my intuition should know what to do!_ Not completely sure how her reasoning was so certain of that, Sasagawa simply went with the flow and followed with a deadly flame-enhanced swing of her weapon. Startled by the sudden turn of events, Gamma gave his roulette a quick spin and got himself a yellow color. The barrier he formed suffered a severe crack from the force and he was hurled back several feet, where he tripped over a motorcycle and fell behind it.

"I'm going to save Uni as my dying wish!" Kyoko screamed at the motorcycle. She was in her underwear again and the flame on her forehead seemed larger than ever.

"Ugh…" Gamma protested as he got himself up. "A dying will bullet, huh? The must mean you have some help from the inside…"

"Quit with this nonsense, Gamma." Lal Mirch pleaded as she reached the scene, her rifle still fuming from the shot. "You can't possibly have noticed yet that Aria is up to no good."

"I won't listen to your lies, goddamnit!" He lashed back. "You'll never understand the bond we have at the Giglio Nero. No one can. If we don't stand for each other, all that's left of good in the mafia is going to crumble and fall!" The subject seemed to be a very delicate matter for him, causing the Arcobaleno to have a hard time trying to bring up an argument. She settled with a threat:

"Fine, then. If you won't listen to reason, then my student is going to take you down."

"Hyaaa!"

The repeated use of the dying will mode turned out to have positive effects on Kyoko, since she was able to maintain and control its effects much better than the first time. The bursts of flame from her wand became significantly larger and faster during that time, giving even the skilled Giglio Nero member a hard time dodging them. His special equipment, the Giglio roulette, had plenty of raw power but he truly had no influence or information on the power of his next move until moments before he could use it. It took almost a minute until a high, blue roll allowed him to turn the flame projectiles back at the attacker and stop the assault. Gamma had plenty of time to charge and strike, yet he hesitated when right in front of her _. If this rolls a red I could be in trouble…_ Worse even, a careful look into her opponent's eyes revealed a daunting assurance from her part. He used the equipment to retreat and, as expected, a pitiful red showed up on his arm. _She knows what my roll is going to be before even myself… This isn't a fair game anymore!_

Gamma's determination was awe-inducing, as he made the best from whatever luck his equipment brought to him to give his opponent the best fight he could. Lasers sprouted from his gun-shaped hand from time to time, bolts of all colors cruised through the streets and he used just about every mobile object on the way to block the onslaught or pressure the Back Veil's leader… But her advantage was too great for him to surpass. When he was near his limit, he spun the roulette one last time in a desperate hope to pull out his trump card. A quick look at Sasagawa's confused expression proved that he did just that; his Giglio Roulette hit the 'Jackpot' section and began blinking in white while spinning widly and uncontrollably. Green, crackling flames spurted from his body, a vision so impressive his opponent took a step back.

"I thought you had me for a moment…" The Giglio Nero member said. "But it's all over now. I won't have any mercy for you, because I know you'd do the same for me."

"Kyoko, get to cover!" Lal shouted, but to no avail.

The moment Gamma pointed his index finger forward a surge of green flames found its way to the ground just beside Kyoko, hurling her to the side with the ensuing explosion. Several arcs followed the last one, tossing the Black Veil's leader left and right while he attempted to reach a good aim. When he had enough playing with his prey, he turned the lighting into a solid surface for her to trip on and closed in for the final hit. Even looking upon her from above and in the face of death, the flame in her forehead hadn't died out and her eyes stayed as determined as ever. He felt dried out of words to say and didn't wish to give fate a chance, so he gathered what was left of his flame energy and fired upon the threat, lighting up the street with his light green flames.

Back again at the inside of the building, Tozaru had just begun to understand the level of mess he and Nosaru had gotten themselves into. When the shapeshifter suit popped, it revealed underneath it a samurai armor so large it almost scraped the ceiling. The girl was probably inside it, but he couldn't be sure because all that he could say from inside the armor were two yellow lights that came from inside the visor. Like a statue brought into life, it moved in stiff, heavy steps that maintained a perfect drawing stance. _If he's that slow, then it shouldn't be too hard…_ The Giglio Nero fighter spun his scythe a couple times before swinging it directly at the armor.

As it turned out, it could move much faster if it wanted to. The sword unsheathed and blocked the impact in one swift move, then proceeded to the offensive. Tozaru blocked the first few hits, but as soon as the armor got a swing in it did short work of the Giglio Nero member. All the hitting swings used the blunt side of the sword, however, so he sported little more than bruisers over his body. With the job done, the armor dismounted itself, revealing a little exhausted Haru inside. After dropping into the ground and letting off a few tiresome groans, she pulled herself back up and called out for her friend:

"Nagi, you there?" She asked while searching around the building. Instead of her friend, she ran into the boy who was fighting her. His eyes were wide open, unblinking, and he trembled near the wall on a fetal position. "Hey, boy, are you alright?"

"Please… Not to Uni… Don't do it to her!" He reached out for something that wasn't there. After a few moments, it was clear that his mind was stuck in an endless, repeating nightmare. "Please…"

"Oh, my…" Haru commented. Nagi couldn't have done this to him, could she? She quickly reached over to the remains of the bear pelt and covered Nosaru with a makeshift blanket. "Hang in there, I'll get you some help after I find Nagi."

On the streets of Namimori, the fierce duel between I-Pin and the Bloody _Twins was still going at full force, mostly since the two brothers were barely fazed by most of her attacks. If only I could use it, this would be so much easier…_ A dangerously close swing brought her back into the reality. No use overthinking it. I'll just have to brute force it. After taking a step back, she built up the necessary energy and gas around her palms with quick, precise movements on the very small time it took the two brothers to reach her. Just in the nick of time, she readied her hands and thrusted them forward, yelling:

"Gyoza Hissatsu: Assuku Gyoza!"

The blast was much more violent than the one used at the Death mountain, hitting the Bloody twins in precise points of their extremities instead of the whole body. As a result, their limbs twisted backwards at a very unnatural angle without hurling them back. Unable to move for a moment, the two collapsed on their feet and struggled slowly, grunting some unintelligible complaint. I-Pin was already turning her back when the creatures slowly started to twist themselves back into a standing position. Around their bodies, a yellow flame covered their wounds and closed them much quicker than a regular human ever could. _Their flames are going to be quite a problem._ The Black Veil member thought to herself while she assumed her fighting stance again, already beginning to struggle with her own breath _._ _If only I had one myself…_

Not even Lal Mirch could tell what was happening from the bright shine that followed Gamma's strike on her student. _Did I just lead her to her own death?_ Both herself and Gamma, however, where completely out of words when they noticed a burst of white flames emerging from the green hell.

"What!?" The Giglio Nero member asked. "How…?"

"I am saving Uni, no matter the cost!" Kyoko shouted back.

The flames in her wand had become of such might that they were fighting the electric flames right back, slowly yet steadily overcoming it as she stood back up on her feet. When the flames were meeting at the middle, the vongola equipment concentrated a large burst and hurled it forward, ensuing in an explosion riddled with white snowflakes. At the other end of it there laid Gamma, finally too bruised continue. Kyoko's flame died out shortly after; she was so weak from the fight her legs didn't seem capable of sustaining the rest of the body anymore. Aware of her student's condition, Lal Mirch rolled up a boulder for her to sit on and covered her with a white shirt she took from her student's bedroom earlier that morning.

"That was a close one, kid." The Arcobaleno said. "Your lack of reflexes almost got you killed this time."

"Ugh… Are you sure I'm not dead yet?" She asked back, rather playfully, before returning to a more serious tone: "I don't think I'd make it without you, Lal. Thank you for saving me."

"You don't need to thank me for doing my job." She replied. After a moment, Lal ended up giving a softer tone: "I brought some spare clothes for you. How about we put them on and see how are the others?"

While the two Black Veil members discussed the situation, Gamma could do little more than crawl himself into a sitting position and look at the two. The more he looked at the scene, the harder it became to keep seeing them as bloody terrorists out for the Decimo. He'd never been one to feel compassion for his foes; Aria always had told him that the Giglio Nero were the only family that actually treated each other with the respect and warmth of a real family. _And yet there were the two, not too different from a mother taking care of her daughter._ _This is getting too confusing… Isn't it enough that I failed Aria, now I must question her too?_

"Hahi! Kyoko, Lal!" Haru managed to get herself out of the building and immediately greeted a fully clothed Kyoko with a hug. "I'm so happy to see you're okay! I thought you had been crushed by that piece of building!"

"Me too. Have you seen anyone else?"

"Haru was with Nagi, but she disappeared when we were fighting bad guys." Miura explained. "We should go find the rest!"

"You're right." After a brief hesitation, Kyoko pushed herself off the boulder she sad on. Her feet seemed to have gained some stability again, albeit it was a bit of a pushover to believe she could manage another fight. "Hana should be up ahead. Let's go see if she needs our help."

"Right. " When they were about to leave the scene, Haru remembered something important and looked over to the fallen enemy. "Hey, blonde guy."

"Are you talking to me?" Gamma asked.

"Yeah, you. Your friend is having a hard time in the building over there. You should try to cheer him up." She searched her pockets for a moment and threw a half-eaten chocolate bar at the Giglio Nero foe. "Maybe this will help!"

Even long after the group left, Gamma still stared at the little sweet in his hand, trying to understand the meaning of the gesture.

The direct impact on the wall that Hana suffered would be enough to knock down even an experienced swordsman, but her pride was too hard to let her face such a loss. A quick inspection revealed that the two of them were fighting much closed to the buildings of the block that she previously thought; in fact, he was in the completely opposite direction she believed to have seen him in. After recovering from the impact she also noticed the man wasn't interested anymore in fighting her.

"Your equipment is impressive." He complimented. "But it won't compensate for your lack of skill. I am Genkishi, after all. I'm not just one of the best swordsman in the Giglio Nero. I am an illusionist as well."

"Why are you talking to me like it's all over?" Hana questioned. She tried attacking her enemy with a hail of blades, but it turned out to be just another shadow. "I'm still standing!" She added, searching around herself for his presence. The Black Veil's swordsman was met with a swift kick that seemed to have appeared from thin air, which knocked her out of balance and forced her to stand up again.

"Why are you even trying still?" He asked. "You're looking like a stubborn little child trying to face something it doesn't understand."

"What did you just call me?"

Hana doubled her efforts after having been accused of the one thing she hated the most, but it did little change as she was still just swinging at false images. Genkishi was patient and careful, tiring her out bit by bit with taunts and illusions until she was panting heavily. When her guard was down he finally showed himself behind her, grabbed her bracelet and threw it away before she could form any more swords. Completely overpowered by her foe, Kurokawa looked down and found one of his cold blades less than an inch from her neck.

"You… You coward!" Hana accused as she struggled with her best efforts to break free. "They won't let you get away with this!"

"You mean your friends?" Genkishi asked. "They're next."

"Next in line to kick your butt, that is!"

By the time the Giglio Nero Swordsman looked back to search for the source of the threat, a burst of snow flames hit him directly on the back, loosening his grip. Hana escaped his grasp and immediately recovered her bracelet. _Kyoko and Lal! And is that Haru?_ She didn't know much about the shapeshifter costume, but to be honest that weren't that many explanations for a samurai armor following the Black Veil leader around.

"I lost Uni." Hana informed. "She was acting strange and went after her mother. You keep going, I can handle him." Her two friends exchanged a quick look at each other, then Kyoko said:

"It's not about who's the best fighter here, Hana. I'll go on ahead with Lal; I need you to follow me as soon as you can to help." Hana hesitated for a moment, amazed by her friend's confidence, before answering:

"You got it, boss!"

Slightly surprised by the new title, Kyoko gave her friends a last encouraging nod before leaving them to follow Uni's tracks. The trail lead to an old cemetery near the center of town. What she saw near its entrance took away her breath; it was her friend Uni, clearly bruised beyond what was reasonable for a fight. The mere sight of Sasagawa brought the newest Black Veil member to tears. When Kyko reached in to help her, she said:

"Kyoko… No." Uni's hand reached out for her friend's shirt collar, but her grip was weak. "You need to run… Before she gets here."

"I can't run! I won't let her get away with all that she did!"

"You don't understand." Uni tried to explain. "All of this is a setup. You are the one she really wants."

\- Chapter end –

So… This took a while, right? Writing this has become harder than ever lately, but good news is that unless I die I ain't dropping this. For those you still there, thank you for your patience and see you in the next chapter!


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